Iran struggles to meet gas demand

The source said the volume of gas exports to Turkey had been cut from 20 million cubic meters to five million cubic meters.

 

Iran was previously forced to completely halt its gas exports to Turkey for five days in January 2007 in order to compensate for a domestic consumption crunch.

 

“The cold and the drop in gas pressure have created problems throughout the country,” Manouchehr Mottaki, the foreign minister told state television.

 

Officials cite technical problems for the complete halt in gas supplies from Turkmenistan which normally provides five per cent of Iran’s consumption needs.

 

 

Rashid Meredov, Turkmenistan’s foreign minister promised Iran that supplies would be rapidly restored but did not specify when.

 

Iran, which is keen to supply gas to India and Pakistan as well as Europe, has struggled to meet its own demand despite having the second largest gas reserves in the world after Russia.

 

Iran says it needs its nuclear programme solely to provide additional energy for its population of 70 million and strongly rejects accusations that it is seeking an atomic weapons capability.

 

In August, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, sacked Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh, the former oil minister who warned Iran faces a “catastrophe” in its energy sector if a solution is not found for high consumption in the next 15 years.

 

Development of Iranian gas fields is held up by a lack of foreign investment, although Tehran last week signed a $6 billion development deal with Malaysia.