Turkmenistan has reached an agreement with Turkey for exports of gas via Iran amid growing energy cooperation between regional countries.
A Wednesday report by the Associated Press said that Turkmenistan’s state-run gas company Turkmengas had signed a deal with Turkey's state-owned BOTAS to start gas exports through Iran starting March 1.
Turkmenistan’s official newspaper Neutral Tyrkmenistan also said in a Tuesday report that chairman of the country's People's Council Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov had hailed the deal as a major development in the regional energy cooperation during a phone call he had with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier this week.
There was no information available on the size and price of the gas supplies negotiated under the deal.
However, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said in a report that Turkmengas will be able to use the idle capacity of an Iranian export pipeline to Turkey to supply up to 4 billion cubic meters per year of natural gas to BOTAS.
The development will also boost Iran’s ability to increase its supply of natural gas to its national grid customers in the northeast of the country where key population and industry centers are located.
The official IRNA news agency said that Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad had canceled a planned trip with the Cabinet to the southern gas hub of Asaluyeh to hold a meeting with visiting Turkmenistan’s Foreign Minister Raşit Meredow on Wednesday.
The meeting, where the two ministers discussed increased oil and gas cooperation between Iran and Turkmenistan, came hours after Meredow met with President Pezeshkian.
Iran has signed several gas swap agreements with Turkmenistan in recent years to supply gas to Azerbaijan and Iraq.
Tasnim said Turkey’s new gas import agreement with Turkmenistan will allow the country to ship a part of the gas being imported from Azerbaijan to Europe.