The National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) has announced on Friday that Islamic Republic has reduced its gas imports from Turkmenistan by 50%. In recent years, Iran has enjoyed positive partnerships with Turkmenistan in energy sectors.
“According to new agreements with the government of Turkemnistan, Iran will import 40 million cubic meters of natural gas on daily basis. Also the National Iranian Gas Company will continue selling gas to Turkey.”Javad Owji, the manager of NIGC, told reporters on Friday.
Owji also went on to reveal the details of gas deals with Turkmenistan and Turkey over the past year. “In last year, we managed to reduce the volume of imported natural gas from Turkmenistan by more than 50%. Over the past Persian year, we imported 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas to country. In the same year, NIGC exported 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey.”
“Unfortunately, the domestic use of natural gas is increasing in Islamic Republic annually. This limits the international operations of NIGC, because the company must first fulfill domestic markets. Iranians consumed over 150 billion cubic meters of gas in last year.” Javad Owji added.
Recently, Iran has signed new contracts with Iraq in order to export natural gas to the neighboring Arab state. Base on estimations, Islamic Republic will be able to increase its gas exports revenues by more than 30% in near future.
The total revenues of Iran gas exports have been decreased significantly during the recent years. Western countries have applied economic embargoes on Iran, which refrain other countries buying natural gas from Islamic Republic.