A major agreement to supply Turkmen natural gas to Iran is scheduled to sign soon, the IRNA news agency reports. Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji said this after a meeting in Tehran with Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister Batyr Amanov, who oversees the oil and gas sector.

"Turkmenistan will pump 10mn cubic meters per day of gas to its southern neighbor".

Experts told Daryo that Iran benefits from the deal as it solves the problem of power supply to the country's northern provinces, which are remote from the national gas fields.

Turkmenistan interrupted direct gas supplies to Iran in 2017 due to a $1.8bn debt accumulated from 2007-2008. At the same time, Turkmenistan has been supplying the fuel to Azerbaijan on a swap basis through Iran since 2022.

Owji said the other day that Iran has paid some $1.65bn to Turkmenistan to settle its energy arrears. He said Tehran aims to boost its gas trade with Turkmenistan, including through swap, transit, sales and purchase agreements.

 

The two countries are connected by two pipelines with annual capacity of up to 14bn cubic metres of gas, with the prospect of increasing that to 20bn.

Eziz Boyarov, Ashgabat