Turkey and Iran agreed Wednesday that Iranian natural gas will start flowing to Turkey on July 30th 2001, following an 18-month hold-up caused by delays in the construction of the pipeline.
The deal was signed in Ankara by Iran's deputy oil minister Hamdollah Mohammad-Nejad and the head of Turkey's state-run oil company BOTAS, Gokhan Yardim.
Under the original agreement, signed in 1996, the gas was supposed to have started flowing at the end of 1999, but the two sides agreed on a postponement in January after Turkey failed to complete the construction of its section of the pipeline due to financial difficulties.
The Turkish section of the conduit, which will run from the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz to Ankara, is now expected to be completed in May next year, Yardim said Wednesday.
According to the revisions made in the agreement, Iran would initially supply three billion cubic meters of gas a year and increase it to 10 billion cubic meters (350 billion cubic feet) in 2007, Mohammad-Nejad said.
The agreement will expire in 2025 instead of 2022, he added.
The United States has objected to the Turkish-Iranian deal because it rivals a major US-backed pipeline project to carry natural gas from Turkmenistan to Western markets via Turkey.
To appease Washington, Ankara has repeatedly said the trans-Caspian pipeline is a priority, but maintains that it needs both projects to meet growing energy demands – ANKARA (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
