Turkmenistan likely to pump more natural gas

Exports of natural gas from Turkmenistan to Iran is likely to boost after the Central Asian state put into operation a new natural gas compressor station. A report by Turkmen Neutral daily said that the station will boost the country's annual export capacity by 2 billion cubic meters (bcm). The report added that the gas will be fed into the Central Asia-Center 3 pipeline, which is linked into supply routes to Russia and Iran. Since Russian demand for Turkmen gas is weak, the gas will likely go to covering the unused annual capacity in an 8 billion cubic-meter pipeline to Northern Iran. Turkmenistan and Iran are currently joined by two gas pipelines, allowing for total deliveries of up to 20 billion cubic meters per year. In January, Managing-Director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) NIGC Javad Oji said that the country plans to further develop its gas fields and build more gas pipelines after the company inked several lucrative contracts in 2010. The Iranian and Turkmen officials have in their recent meetings agreed to boost gas cooperation between the two countries after launching a new joint gas pipeline project which is due to increase Iran's gas imports from the Central Asian state. Late in November, Ahmadinejad and his Turkmen counterpart inaugurated the last section of a 1.2-billion-dollar gas pipeline between the two countries. The 1024-km-pipeline has a daily capacity of 50 mcm. The 48-inch diameter pipeline allows Iran to swap Turkmen gas to other countries. The first phase of the pipeline came on stream in January 2010 to deliver gas from Turkmenistan's Dauletabad field to Iran's Khangiran refinery. The second pipeline which passes through Dauletabad, Sarakhs and Khangiran regions was constructed after Iran felt extensive problems in supplying gas to its Northern parts.