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Monday, 08 September, 2008, 18:40 GMT | more prices >>

Iran says Turkey restart uncertain



By Upstream staff 

An Iranian official said today he did not know when his country would be able to resume gas exports to Turkey, which were cut off almost 10 days ago after Turkmenistan halted supplies to Iran.

Turkey last week said Iranian officials had promised the problem would be resolved by 14 January while the head of Iran's state gas company has been quoted as saying exports would be resumed on 15 January.

But Ebadollah Ghanbari, head of the public relations unit of Iran's national gas company, told Reuters when asked when deliveries to Turkey might be restored: "They still have not announced a date to me."

Iran struggles to meet soaring domestic demand after a sharp drop in temperatures and heavy snowfalls across the country in the past few weeks. Tehran also says it cut supplies to Turkey on 7 Janaury after Turkmenistan halted exports to Iran.

"We hope that with people's (fuel) savings and a rise in temperatures these conditions would go back to normal as soon as possible and that we would be able to send our gas to Turkey again," Ghanbari said.

Iran normally exports up to 30 million cubic metres of natural gas per day to Turkey, while it imports roughly 23 MMcmd from Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan has blamed technical problems for its cut in deliveries to Iran and also says Tehran's failure to meet some payments was delaying pipeline repairs.

Iranian officials, insisting they are up to date with payments, say Ashgabat wants to increase the price of gas it ships to Iran.

Tehran has become increasingly vocal in criticising Turkmenistan with one official this week saying it was "immoral" to halt gas exports to Iran during an unusually cold winter.

Despite sitting on the world's second largest gas reserves after Russia, analysts say Iran has been slow to develop the sector due to sanctions, politics and construction delays.


Wednesday, 16 January, 2008, 09:16 GMT  | last updated: Wednesday, 16 January, 2008, 09:20 GMT

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