Iran faces hurdles with gas for Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Iran might have to wait for Russian energy company Gazprom to act before it starts shipping more natural gas to neighboring Turkey, an official said.

In early October, state-owned Turkish Pipeline Corp., or BOTAS, said it wasn't renewing its 25-year natural gas deal through the so-called Western pipeline because Gazprom wasn't offering a discount to Ankara.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz noted that a deal with Russia for the Blue Stream pipeline, which carries more than 200 billion cubic feet of Russia's natural gas to Turkey, was still in place, however.

Necdet Pamir, a board member at the World Energy Council Turkish National Committee, told Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper that Iran has obstacles to overcome with gas exports.

"Iran is unable to increase the amount of its natural gas exports to Turkey significantly in the short term," he said. "Iran needs to invest in order to extract more gas and this is quite impossible due to sanctions on the country."

Javad Oji, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Co., said Tehran is ready to increase gas exports to Turkey but is waiting for a BOTAS deal to go through with Moscow.

Iranian media reports say Turkey gets around 840 million cubic feet of natural gas from Iran per day.