Iran rejects Turkey's request for cheaper gas

TEHRAN,Feb.2(MNA)-- Iran has not received any official request on the gas price lowering from Turkish Botas company, the spokesman of National Iranian Gas Company said here on Wednesday. Majid Bojarzadeh told that according to the gas contract between Iran and Turkey, both parts could discuss about the price of exporting gas, and if the negotiations fail, they can take to international arbitrations. Bojarzadeh made the statements, commenting on recent Turkey's claims against Iran, regarding the shortage of gas supply. Earlier, Turkey filed a lawsuit against Iran to the International Arbitration Court because of short supply of Iranian gas to the country. Turkey's Energy Minister had said in January 16 that Iran has rejected Ankara's demand for cheaper natural gas, adding that going to an international arbitration court over the issue seems “inevitable”. Taner Yildiz noted that “we have close cooperation with Iran and we are developing joint projects, but we voiced our discomfort to them Iranian officials over the price of the natural gas we import and told them that the prices are high.” “They did not share the same view with us. We respect their view…but we did not reach an agreement, so an international arbitration court seems inevitable,” the Turkish minister added. Yildiz noted that Ankara's talks over the issue with Iranian energy officials follow Turkey's negotiations with Moscow over the price of the imported natural gas from Russia. He added that Turkey routinely reviews and controls the price of the natural gas it imports from Russia, Iran, Nigeria, Azerbaijan and Algeria. Yildiz stated that as soon as the two countries reach an agreement, a Turkish delegation could go to Tehran or an Iranian delegation could visit Ankara to end the pricing issue. Iran is one of the main sources of the natural gas imports for neighboring Turkey. On October 12, 2011, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oji said Turkey has requested Iran to increase its natural gas exports to its northwestern neighbor amid a Russia-Turkey row over the price of gas He added that Iran's gas exports to Turkey stood at 24 million cubic meters per day on average and expressed Tehran's readiness to provide Ankara with further natural gas. The official stated that Iran has a capacity to export a daily average of 36-40 million cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey. Iran ranks second in the world in natural gas reserves after Russia with available gas reserves estimated at over 33 trillion cubic meters. In addition to exporting gas to Turkey, Armenia, and Pakistan, the country is currently negotiating gas exports to Iraq. In 1996, Iran and Turkey signed an agreement to supply 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey annually (30 million cubic meters per day). According to the statistic data of the Turkish State Pipeline Company Botas, Turkey imported 39.7 billion cubic meters of gas from Iran in 2011. Russia ranks first, followed by Iran and Azerbaijan among exporters of gas to Turkey.