Tehran, June 17: Iran has signed a deal to boost annual gas imports from Turkmenistan by about 40 percent to 14 billion cubic metres, deputy oil minister Javad Ouji said in a report on Thursday.
“Under the new deal we predict the daily imports to reach 40 million cubic meters by winter,” Ouji was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.
Despite having the world’s second largest gas reserves, Iran currently imports 25 million cubic metres of gas a day from Turkmenistan.
Iran’s northern neighbour cut its gas exports to the Islamic republic for several months in the winter of 2007-2008 over what it said were payment delays and technical issues.
The domestic shortages have underlined the problems of the gas industry in Iran, which cannot develop its gas fields due to a lack of foreign investment and technology even though its reserves are second only to Russia.
In January Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated a new gas pipeline link to Iran from Turkmenistan, which would raise the supply of Turkmen gas to Iran to 20 billion cubic metres annually.
The 30.5-kilometre (19-mile) pipeline from Turkmenistan’s southeast Dovletabad field would supply Iran’s Khangiran gas refinery initially with 6.0 billion cubic metres of gas per year.
–Agencies