Türkmengaz to lose its biggest customer Iran
With the inauguration of a gas pipeline in north of Iran on the coming Tuesday, the import of natural gas from Turkmenistan to Iran will halt.
The National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) and Türkmengaz signed a 25-year gas contract in 1997 for supply of a part of the gas consumed in Iran’s northern provinces by the Turkmen company.
Five years of the contract still remains. But due to some developments, Iran decided to supply the gas needed in the provinces from inside Iran to cut dependency on Turkmenistan.
The Turkmen company tried to fish in troubled water ten years ago; contradictory to the agreement, they abruptly stopped their gas exports to Iran in the middle of an abnormally cold winter, and ninefold the gas price, demanding quick payment of the disputed amount.
Tehran demands to take the issue to international courts.
And once again, Turkmenistan stopped gas exports to Iran on January 1, 2017. But, thanks to proper management from NIGC, the cutoff had no effect on gas supplies for northern provinces of the country.
According to the report of the public relations of the NIGC, Iran currently produces 700 million cubic meters of gas per day, and imports from Turkmenistan was only 2 percent of the country’s gas production.
