BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 15. Iran is in talks with Turkmenistan to increase its gas imports from the neighboring country, Iran's Oil Minister Javad Owji told reporters after today’s meeting of the Cabinet of Iran in Tehran, Trend reports.
Iran had announced in May 2023 that it would sign a gas import contract with Turkmenistan and start receiving 10 million cubic meters of gas per day from May 21, 2023. Since then, Iran has been importing an average of 7.5 million cubic meters of gas daily from Turkmenistan, with some days reaching 10 million cubic meters.
Owji said that the gas imports from Turkmenistan were part of Iran’s efforts to ensure gas supply to its northern and northeastern regions in the upcoming winter season (December 22, 2023 through March 19, 2024).
He added that Iran is continuing to swap Turkmen gas to Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan had signed a contract on November 28, 2021 in Ashgabat to swap Turkmen gas to Azerbaijan through Iran.
The contract envisaged the delivery of up to 1.5-2 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas to Azerbaijan per year, starting from January 1, 2022.
On June 3, 2022, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov and Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji signed a memorandum of understanding in Baku to double the Turkmen gas supply to Azerbaijan via Iran.
Iran has the second largest gas reserves in the world, with about 34 trillion cubic meters of gas. The country’s gas production capacity is reportedly more than 1 billion cubic meters.
---
Follow the author on X (Twitter):@BaghishovElnur
