National Iranian Gas Company To Bid For Ankara Gas Distribution Network

Ankara, Jan 15, IRNA – National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) plans to buy Turkey’s main natural gas distributor, Baskent Gaz, which has been put to tender by Turkish Privatization Office. Turkish energy officials are quoted in Turkey's widely circulated Zaman daily as saying that Iran's NIGC has demanded the tender documents for the infrastructure facility. The deadline for bids for Baskent, which supplies gas to 1.4 million people in Ankara, expires on Friday, January 18th. The paper reported that NIGC’s successful bid for 100 percent of Baskent would further boost energy ties between Iran and Turkey, regardless of the Western imposed sanctions against the Islamic Republic’s energy sector. Iran is the second largest natural gas supplier to Turkey, next to Russia. In December 2012, NIGC chief Javad Owji that said Iran’s daily natural gas exports to Turkey topped 31 million cubic meters (mcm). Turkey has said it will keep buying natural gas from Iran despite the US-led sanctions against Tehran. Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said in December that Iran supplies 18-20 percent of the gas consumed by Turkey. The United States, Israel and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, with Washington and the European Union using the false allegation to impose illegal unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic. In a new move, EU member states on October 15 announced a package of sanctions against Iran, which focuses on Iranian banks, trade and gas exports. This state owned company, belonging to Istanbul Municipality and the Turkish Privatization Office alternately, has been put to tender a number of times, but it has not been sold yet. Turkish Privatization Office last time proposed December 17th as the tender date but according to the requests made by the bidder firms, the date of the tender was delayed to January 18th. The bidder firms, or consortiums, interested in buying the Ankara gas distribution network must deposit a fifty million dollar guarantee before participation at the tender. Zaman wrote tat the NIGC has all the required qualifications for participation at the tended, according to Turkish officials, but it is still not clear whether it would manage to deposit 50 million dollars in the account of the Privatization Office as a prerequisite for participation at the tender, or not./end