By Xinhua
Ankara : In a bid to reach a final solution to recurrent gas problems with Turkey, Iran has decided to construct a new pipeline to carry its natural gas to the Turkish market, local newspaper Today’s Zaman reported on Tuesday.
Iran had enough reserves to double the gas provided to Turkey, said the report, quoting Ahmad Noorani, the undersecretary for economic and commercial affairs at the Iranian Embassy in Ankara.
However, as the current pipeline between the two countries was connected to Iran’s domestic natural gas network, gas flow might drop depending on weather conditions and natural gas consumption, said Noorani.
“A new pipeline dedicated to shipments to Turkey will be installed soon,” said Noorani, “so that the gas flow will not be affected from sudden changes in Iran’s domestic market.”
The project was in the development stage for now and completion of the pipeline might take time, the report said.
Turkey and Iran signed a natural gas agreement in August 1996, allowing Turkey to purchase 10 billion cubic meters of natural gasper year from Iran for 25 years.
As Iran failed to send its gas to Turkey, Russian state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom had made up for the gap in supply by increasing its daily output to Turkey.