Turkey expects Iranian gas flow cut to last long

ANKARA, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Turkey expects a cut in its natural gas imports from Iran to last a long time while Russia, another key energy provider, is unable to allocate additional supplies, a senior energy ministry official said on Monday.

“The problems with gas coming from Iran to Turkey are seen lasting a long time,” the official told Reuters.
Turkey’s state-run pipeline company Botas announced earlier on Monday that Iran had cut its gas exports to Turkey for technical reasons.


Iran, source of nearly one third of Turkey’s natural gas imports, later blamed the disruption on cold weather.
Russia, which usually increases its gas exports to Turkey when supplies from Iran run short, said it could not provide additional gas during the shortage.

“Due to cold weather in Russia, they cannot meet (our requests for additional gas supplies). In fact there is a daily five million cubic metre drop in the gas supplies that are supposed to come from Russia,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Turkey will be taking other measures to secure supplies, such as making purchases from the spot liquid natural gas market, he added.

Reuters