Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iran agree to double natural gas swap

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji has said that Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have reached agreements to double the amount of natural gas swap under the deal reached in November, Azernews reports.

Owji said that Iran, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan had almost finalized agreements for doubling the volume of gas mentioned in the swap deal.

“Fortunately, everything is ready for the increase in the volume of the gas swap agreement and it will be doubled very soon,” Owji told reporters in Baku.

He noted that the issue of natural gas swap volume increase had been discussed in Tehran, Baku, and Ashgabat in recent months.

To recall, after a meeting with the Turkmen delegation led by Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov in October 2021, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji announced Tehran's intention to pay the gas debt to Turkmenistan. Turkmengaz has stopped gas deliveries to Iran since January 2017 due to Iran's debt.

After the talks, during Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev's visit to Iran, an agreement was reached on the swap of gas supplies to Azerbaijan via Iran from Turkmenistan.

On November 28, 2021, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkmenistan signed a trilateral agreement on a gas swap in Ashgabat. The signing ceremony took place in the presence of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi.

The agreement envisages deliveries of 1.5 to 2 billion cubic meters of gas each year, with Turkmenistan supplying gas to Iran and Iran delivering an equal quantity of gas to Azerbaijan.