Iran and Turkmenistan have signed a major gas swap deal that enables Turkmenistan to supply natural gas to northeastern Iranian provinces in return for the delivery of the same amount of Iran’s gas to Iraq.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency said on Wednesday that the gas swap deal between Iran and Turkmenistan had been signed earlier in the day in the Iranian embassy in Ashgabat.
The agreement was signed between Iran’s Ambassador to Turkmenistan Ali Mojtaba Roozbahani and Maksat Babayev, a state minister of Turkmenistan and chairman of state gas company Turkmengas.
The two sides issued a joint statement after signing the deal, saying that previous gas swap agreements for supply of Turkmenistan’s gas to third countries via Iran had created a solid foundation for expanding cooperation in this field.
The statement was referring to an agreement signed in late 2021 under which Iran had committed to supply 1.5-2 billion cubic meters per year of gas to Azerbaijan in return for receiving the same amount of gas from Turkmenistan in its northeastern borders.
The three countries agreed a year later to double the amount of gas transferred under the swap deal.
IRNA’s Wednesday report said that Iran will supply 10 bcm per year of natural gas to Iraq under the new swap agreement signed with Turkmenistan.
It said Iranian companies have also committed to other agreements with Turkmenistan to build 125 kilometers of pipelines in the Central Asian country to help it increase its gas exports to Iran to 40 bcm per year.
The agreements come a week after Iran’s state gas company the NIGC signed a general agreement with Russia’s Gazprom to set up a framework for re-export of Russian gas from Iran to Iraq, Turkey and Pakistan.