Baku, Azerbaijan, June 6
By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:
Iran has accelerated the construction of Neka-Damghan pipeline to supply gas to regions which suffered from gas outage after Turkmenistan cut gas export to Iran in January 2017, Hamid Reza Araghi, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company told Mehr June 6.
The length of the pipeline is 150 km.
Without mentioning the progress of project, Araghi said that the pipeline would become operational by one or two months.
Iran had completed 110 km of pipeline when Turkmenistan cut gas export to Iran in January and no report has been published about the current progress.
Turkmenistan stopped gas deliveries to Iran in January 1, 2017 due to long-delayed $2 billion debt. Iran disagrees, saying the sides should re-calculate the value of gas import.
Previously, Araghi said that Iran would sue Turkmenistan for three disputes: gas price, damage from sudden gas export cut, as well as gas quality.
Araghi said that the documents would be submitted to The International Criminal Court (ICC) and Turkmenistan has already been informed about the issue.
Ali Shakarami the head of operation Dispatching Control Centre of NIGC told Trend on June 2 that Iran has "perfectly managed" the unexpected gas export cut by Turkmenistan since January 1.
According to him, Iran's housing sector was supplied properly with gas in peak demand period (winter), though the country had to use more liquid fuels in power plants.
Iran imported 9 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan in 2015, but according to an official document, prepared by Iran's oil ministry and seen by Trend, the volume plunged to 5.86 bcm in 2016.
