To prevent financial disputes and resolve technical hitches between the National Iranian Gas Company and Botas, Turkey's state oil and gas company, new equipment was installed at the Bazargan gas export facility in West Azarbaijan Province northwest of Iran, the managing director of the state-run Iran Gas Engineering and Development Company said.
“The Bazargan station has been in use for the last 23 years and it was necessary to replace the old metering devices with new gadgets to avoid errors while making calculations,” Reza Noshadi was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news service.
Giving a breakdown on the project, he noted that the new equipment includes analyzers, payment calculation devices, transmitters and metering gadgets.
“The high-tech systems will help measure the volume of exported gas more accurately, as a result of which any dispute between NIGC and Botas over the quantitative and financial issues could be settled easily,” he added.
According to the official, most devices were manufactured and installed by domestic engineers.
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 are used for electricity generation in the country’s power plants.
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.
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.
According to Mohammad Reza Joulaei, the head of dispatching operations at NIGC, Tehran and Ankara have started the first phase of negotiations to renew a natural gas contract that expires in 2026.
“The two sides are hopeful of reaching a win-win agreement, but given the nature of long-term international contracts, such talks are normally linked with foreign policy issues and geopolitical considerations,” he said.
