Turkmen pipeline gas deliveries to Iran’s northeastern provinces ground to a halt earlier this month according to Iranian and Azeri media reports. The supplies are most needed in winter as these provinces lie far from the country’s gas fields. Under the mechanism, Iran receives volumes from Turkmenistan which are consumed in northeastern Iran, and then supplies an equivalent amount to its northwestern neighbor Azerbaijan under a swap agreement between the three countries.
The development comes amidst elevated winter gas demand in Iran as falling temperatures push households into turning up the heating. Ahmad Zamani, National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC)’s Operations Director, says that more than 840mn m3/d (29.6bn cfd) of dry gas was delivered to the national grid on 16 January with all of Iran’s 20 gas processing plants working at “maximum operational capacity.” (CONTINUED - 1119 WORDS)
