Turkey boosts gas imports from Iran

Turkey stressed the importance of the country's energy ties with Tehran, and announced that the volume of its gas imports from Iran has increased by 7% in the first six months of the current year, Fars News Agency reported.

"Iran is Turkey's very important gas supplier," Head of the Turkish Parliament's Energy Committee Mahmut Mucahit Findikli told.

Findikli, however, added the PKK attacks "would have zero influence on Ankara's energy policy towards Iran".

"There is no reason to dismiss Iran's importance in our energy policy. We need this door - not only for Turkey's energy security, but for Europe's, as well," he said.

Iran exported a daily average of more than 30 million cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey in 2010, which increased around 7 percent the first half of 2011.

According to the report of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Iran's gas export to neighboring Turkey climbed by 50 percent in 2010 compared to the previous year, and by 100 percent in comparison with the 2008 figures.

Turkey does not have sizeable gas domestic production but it is an important natural gas transit country. Iran is Turkey's second largest supplier of natural gas after Russia.

The NIGC announced on January that it exported 8.25 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey via pipeline in 2010.

The exported volume, with an estimated worth of about three billion dollars, is only four percent of the country's total gas production.

The National Iranian Gas Company and Turkish BOTAS Petroleum Pipeline Corporation have boosted their cooperation after signing a contract last year.


/Trend/