Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 26
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Turkmenistan exports about 28-29 million cubic meters of gas per day to Iran, which is less than the agreed amount, Asghar Soheilipour, head of Investment Committee of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) said, the Islamic Republic's ILNA news agency reported Jan. 26.
Based on the signed contract, Turkmenistan is obliged to export 40 million cubic meters of gas per day to Iran, however Iran has not faced shortage problems due to Turkmenistan's low gas export, Soheilipour said. The country can handle the issue even if gas demand surpasses the current level, he emphasized.
Turkmenistan sits on the world's biggest natural gas reserves.
The Iranian government requested from Turkmenistan last November to increase gas delivery to Iran by 6 million cubic meters per day (mcmpd) to 30 mcmpd to avoid gas shortage during the winter months.
Deputy Director of National Iranian Gas Company Gholam-Hossein Samari earlier said that Ashgabat is not fulfilling its commitments on gas supplies to Iran and Tehran can file a formal complaint against Turkmenistan.
Iran gets Turkmen gas via several branches. The Korpeje - Kurt-Kui gas pipeline, commissioned in December 1995, is the main one. Its capacity was brought to eight billion cubic meters per year with the potential of increasing the capacity to 14 billion cubic meters. The Iranian National Gas Export Company acts as a gas buyer.
Last winter, Iran's housing gas consumption reached about 500 mcm per day over several weeks which led to gas shortages that caused cuts to power plants, petrochemical units, gas injection to old oil fields and industrial sector.
Cutting gas supplies to power plants led them to burning $30 billion of liquid fuels, the Iranian government had to decrease gas delivery to petrochemical plants from 35 mcmpd in summer to 15 mcmpd in winter. This caused a drop in the petrochemical production by 7.5 million metric tons during the last fiscal year (ended March 21, 2014).
Edited by CN
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