Turkmenistan reaches deal with Turkey to ship natural gas via Iran

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan — Turkmenistan has struck a deal to ship natural gas to Turkey via Iran, a government daily reported Tuesday.

The official daily Neutral Tyrkmenistan said that Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the chairman of the country's People's Council, welcomed the deal in a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Berdymukhamedov said it was a major development in the regional energy cooperation.

Gas supplies under the contract that was signed between the state-run Turkmengas company and Turkey's state-owned BOTAS will begin on March 1.

"With this agreement, which we have been working on for many years, we will strengthen the natural gas supply security of our country and our region, while furthering the strategic cooperation between the two countries,'' Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said in a statement.

Turkey imports gas via pipelines from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran.

Last year, Turkmenistan signed a contract with Iran for 10 billion cubic meters (353 billion cubic feet) of natural gas to be shipped on to Iraq.

The ex-Soviet Central Asian country relies heavily on the export of its vast natural gas reserves. China is the nation's main customer for gas and Turkmenistan also is working on a pipeline to supply gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.