Page 6 - MEOG Week 02 2023
P. 6
MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG
Drop in Iranian gas supplies to
Turkey blamed on network fault
IRAN IRANIAN natural gas supplies flowing to Tur- various industrial users.
key via a cross-border pipeline are down 70% In January last year, rolling gas and power
since the start of the new year, with Iran hav- cuts were imposed on Turkish industry, with
ing reported a network infrastructure fault, Turkish officials citing reduced Iranian gas
Turkish state energy company Botas said in a flows. On that occasion, Iran explained the
statement on January 7. restricted flows by pointing to required main-
The announcement comes ahead of tenance on energy infrastructure, but analysts
expected peak winter demand for gas. Iran is a questioned whether Tehran had enough gas
heavy user of gas for both homes and industry. matched with distribution capability to main-
Analysts within Iran were discussing the likeli- tain exports.
hood that it was short of gas to export. Others asked if Ankara was struggling
In Alborz province, northern Iran, indus- to pay its gas debt to Iran given its depleted
try has been asked to work to a four-day week FX reserves. Even though Iran has the sec-
until late February in order to conserve gas ond-largest gas reserves in the world after
supplies. Russia, it has a relatively low production rate.
Botas added that it was monitoring the Iran in 2021 supplied around 16% of Tur-
issue and that all necessary measures were key’s gas. Russia is the biggest supplier of gas to
being implemented so that natural gas usage Turkey, followed by Azerbaijan.
would not be negatively affected. Turkey imports gas from Iran under an
Additional demand was being met by gas agreement signed in 1996 for up to 10bn cubic
storage facilities in Turkey, it said. The Turkish metres (bcm)/year until July 2026. It com-
energy ministry, however, warned gas short- menced in 2001 and was later reduced to 9.6
falls could potentially affect power plants and bcm/year.
P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 11•January•2023