Page 6 - MEOG Week 30 2022

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

Oil barter to fund Iran transit corridor

IRAN RUSSIAN construction assistance financed by a to Iran’s Persian Gulf ports, opening up access to
barter for Iranian oil will bring forward the com- much of the Middle East, and East Africa, as well
pletion of the Astara to Rasht rail route segment as South Asia. When completed the INSTC route
running by Iran’s Caspian Sea coast to mid-2023. will be billed as quicker and less expensive than
Iran plans to open up multi-modal cargo the Asia to Europe Suez Canal route. INSTC has
transportation to and from Russia via the Astara assumed far greater importance to Russia since
(both Iran and Azerbaijan have cities on the its late February invasion of Ukraine provoked
Caspian Sea coast named Astara, which face a wave of heavy Western economic sanctions
each other over the Astarachay border river) to aimed at Moscow, causing the Kremlin to accel-
Rasht (further south on the Caspian Sea coast) erate efforts to reorientate much of the Russian
and Caspian Port to Rasht routes, but as things economy away from the West and towards the
stand only trucks have full use of the options, the East and South.
director of the Iranian Construction and Devel- Iran, with its access to the Persian Gulf and
opment of Transportation Infrastructures Com- Indian Ocean, is an essential part of Russia’s tran-
pany, Abbas Khatibi, was reported as saying. sit ambitions. Russia Briefing on July 25 reported
The Astara to Rasht and Caspian Port to Rasht that the construction of the Astara to Rasht rail-
rail routes form an integral part of the developing way was 70% complete and that the Iranian gov-
International North-South Transportation Cor- ernment has approved the construction of the
ridor (INSTC), primarily presented as providing Caspian Port to Rasht railway as a separate rail
trade linkage between Russia and India, via Azer- route section for multi-modal cargo transporta-
baijan and Iran’s Sea of Oman (Indian Ocean) tion to Russia and the other Caspian Sea coun-
Chabahar port, but also offering links such as tries, namely Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia
the connection of Caspian Sea maritime trade and Turkmenistan.™

Maintenance planned for

Azerbaijan-Turkey gas pipeline

TURKEY TURKEY’S state pipeline operator said on July member states to an annual volume of at least
22 that it plans to suspend gas flows from Azer- 20bn cubic metres (bcm) a year by 2027.
baijan’s Shah Deniz gas field to Turkey pipeline
due to scheduled maintenance works. Iran increase
“Due to planned maintenance works between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
August 14-28 in Shah Deniz-Turkey pipe- announced an increase in oil and gas imports
line there will be no natural gas delivery to the from Iran on July 25.
national network from Turkgozu entry point for Turkey agreed to a 25-year gas import deal
14 gas days,” Botas said in a statement. from Iran to secure supplies to the country and
BOTAS added that it did not expect any to allow further exports from Turkey onwards to
supply-demand balance issues in the national Europe expected to start in the next two years.
transmission network during the period of “Trade and bilateral cooperation with neigh-
maintenance. Turkey receives gas from the bouring countries continues, but Ankara is com-
Shah Deniz I field in the Azerbaijani sector of mitted to increasing the sale of oil and gas from
the Caspian Sea via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum Iran,” the Turkish leader said in an interview with
route. Azerbaijani gas also flows across Tur- Turkish television TRT. On July 19, a meeting of
key through the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas the Supreme Council for Cooperation between
Pipeline (TANAP), which stretches from the Iran and Turkey was held in Tehran, where Pres-
Turkish-Georgian border to the Turkish-Greek ident of the Islamic Republic Ebrahim Raisi
border. The European Union last week signed stressed the need to develop trade and political
for more gas from Azerbaijan, which would relations with neighbours, including Turkey.
need to flow to the bloc across Turkey, but so far Iran has also expressed readiness to export gas to
the European Commission’s new gas agreement Turkey. Raisi also assessed the relations between
with Azerbaijan only amounts to a memoran- Ankara and Tehran as positive and progressive,
dum of understanding with Baku that, should noting that both countries should pursue appro-
all be parameters be in place, it will more than priate policies in order to move towards increas-
double exports of Azerbaijani natural gas to EU ing trade exchanges to $30bn a year.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 30 27•July•2022