Iran Oil Minister Visits Turkmenistan

Tehran, Nov 9, IRNA – Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh has visited Turkmenistan and met with the Turkmen president, foreign minister and vice-president for oil and gas affairs. During the one-day visit on Thursday, Zangeneh and the Turkmen officials stressed the need for broader economic cooperation between Iran and Turkmenistan, shana.ir reported Friday. Turkmenistan has promised not to reduce gas delivery to Iran during winter season, according to Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, who started negotiations with Turkmen top officials on Nov.7 in Ashgabat. While in Ashkabad, Zanganeh was received by President Kurbankulu Berdimuhammedov, Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and Vice-President Khajeh Mohammadov in oil and gas affairs and was reassured that Turkmenistan will keep gas delivery to Iran during winter. According to an agreement between the two sides, Turkmenistan should supply 40 million cubic meters of gas per day to Iran, but Deputy Director of National Iranian Gas Company, Abdolhossein Samari told Mehr news agency that the current gas delivery to Iran is about 23 to 24 million cubic meters per day. Iran gets Turkmen gas via several branches. The Korpeje -- Kurt-Kui gas pipeline, commissioned in December 1995, is the main one. Its capacity was brought to eight billion cubic meters per year with the potential of increasing the capacity to 14 billion cubic meters. The Iranian National Gas Export Company acts as a gas buyer. Since President Hassan Rouhani took office in August 2013, Iranian and Turkmen officials have regularly met to explore ways of further cooperation. Iran has already voiced readiness to export commodities as well as technical and engineering services to Turkmenistan./end