Iran exported more than 7 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey in the past nine months.
According to a report by Eurostat, the EU news commission, Iran’s natural gas exports to Turkey in the first nine months of 2022 reached 7.08 bcm, IRNA reported.
The figure is slightly less than the export volume during the same period of last year, when 7.390 billion bcm of gas were sold to the neighboring country.
Recently a meeting was held between the representatives of the National Iranian Gas Company and those of BOTAS, the Turkish state-owned crude oil and natural gas pipeline and trading company, where they decided to increase Iran’s gas exports to Turkey, the head of the NIGC Dispatching Department said.
“According to the agreements, Iran and Turkey will be coordinating plans on all technical and operational activities related to the export of gas to Turkey within the next six months,” Mohammadreza Joulae1 added.
Joulaei said the plans would include a broad range of operational projects, such as repair and maintenance, cathodic maintenance, covering the pipelines between the two neighbors, and the renovation of a compressor station at the Bazargan border crossing.
Iran is Turkey’s second-biggest supplier of natural gas after Russia. According to a 25-year deal signed in 2001, Iran exports around 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey annually, which is used for electricity generation in the country’s power plants.
The gas exports are carried out via a 2,577-km pipeline running from Tabriz to Ankara.
After the reimposition of US sanctions in November 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made it clear that his country would continue to buy natural gas from Iran.
Iran is under US sanctions, as talks between Tehran and Washington over reviving a 2015 nuclear deal stall.
Turkey’s annual gas consumption rose from 48 bcm in 2020 to a record 60 bcm in 2021 and is expected to reach 63 bcm this year, according to official figures.
Las week, Turkey urged Western nations to lift sanctions on countries, such as Iran, which move Ankara said would alleviate the global energy crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
“Remove these sanctions ... if you want the prices to drop, remove the embargoes on the countries that will offer their products to the market,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said.
Iran has the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves, after Russia, but lacks the infrastructure to increase exports, which are currently limited to Iraq and Turkey.
Moscow’s move to cut off gas supplies to Europe amid tensions over Ukraine has triggered an energy crisis across the continent, with consumers and businesses facing high prices as winter approaches.
While the production of gas in Iran has mainly been intended to meet domestic demand, at the end of 2001, Iran began to export gas to Turkey. Besides the Turkish desire to explore the Iranian gas market, the huge natural gas resources have also attracted international energy companies worldwide.
