Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA) Turkmenistan has violated a last year contract which required Ashgabat to double supplies to Iran following an increase in prices, an Iranian oil ministry official said.
“Despite an understanding which was signed by the two sides last year and required Ashgabat to double exports to Iran in return for an increase in price, this country (Turkmenistan) has not only refrained from hiking exports to Iran but also called for a second raise in the price of gas supplies to Iran,” an informed source from the Iranian oil ministry told FNA here on Saturday.
“Last winter Turkmenistan reduced the volume of its gas supplies to Iran, which led to low pressures in certain Iranian cities. At that time Iran signed an understanding with that country on the basis of which the two sides agreed to increase the price of gas exports to Iran in return for doubling the volume of exports,” he said.
“It was mentioned in the same understanding that the price would not be increased for 3 years. But after only one year since the endorsement of the said understanding, Turkmenistan has halted its gas supplies to Iran in blatant violation of the two countries’ contract and the (supplementary) understanding,” the official continued.
He further complained that despite the extra payments made by Iran due to the increased price, Turkmenistan has not only refrained from increasing exports to Iran but also cut supplies to Iran completely.
Turkmenistan halted daily deliveries to Iran of up to 23 million cubic meters of gas, blaming the disruption on technical problems.
Iran, a small net importer despite its huge gas reserves, gets about 5 percent of its needs from its northern neighbor and the supply disruption has caused shortages in some areas as well as a reduction in Iran’s gas exports to Turkey.
