News / Energy

Iran eyeing $30bn Turkmen barter plan

Sunday, 14 June 2015 4:55 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 14 June 2015 5:02 PM ]

Iran says it plans to offer a gas-for-equipment/services barter plan to Turkmenistan.

Iran said on Sunday that it plans to offer a barter scheme to Turkmenistan through which it would pay for natural gas imports by gas industry equipment as well as technical services.

Mohammad-Taqi Amanpour, an advisor to the petroleum minister of Iran on exports of equipment and technical services, told a forum in capital Tehran that the value of the barter scheme will be $30 billion for a period of 10 years.

Amanpour also said that Iran has so far paid a maximum of $3 billion per year for importing natural gas from its northern neighbor.

He added that major preparations have already been taken on Iran’s part toward the implementation of its proposed barter scheme with Turkmenistan.

The official said that Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum has already held tenders over this and received proposals from 70 companies.

Amanpour further said that the same gas-for-equipment/services scheme can be used to settle payments by Turkmenistan to Iranian traders over their exports to the country.

He also said Iran has proposed to Turkmenistan to jointly export oil and natural gas. This, Amanpour said, was devised in response to the country’s interest to transit oil and gas through Iran to other countries.

Turkmenistan is currently exporting a daily of about 25 million cubic meters of natural gas to Iran. Nevertheless, supplies have for several times been suspended during the cold season over the past few years as the result of disputes on pricing issues.

AA/AA

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