International Court Dismisses Turkey’s Gas Complaint against Iran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) for international affairs said the international court of arbitration has rejected Turkey’s gas claim against Iran.
Azizollah Ramezani said that the court ruled in favor of the National Iranian Gas Company and rejected the Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corporation’s (BOTAS) appeal against Iran.
He added that Turkey’s complaint had been brought to the international court of arbitration in January 2012, and the court issued its ruling on the case on November 10, 2014.
According to Ramezani, the Turkish company had sought lower prices for the natural gas it imports from Iran due to what it called lack of assurances that Iran has enough gas to supply to Turkey.
He said ruling on another compliant filed by the Turkish firm about reduction of Iran’s gas price is still pending.
In 1996, Tehran signed an agreement with Ankara to export up to 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey for 25 years.
Turkey imports one-third of its natural gas needs as well as some 30 percent of its oil needs from Iran.
Iran owns one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves, and is also Turkey’s second biggest gas supplier after Russia.
Iran’s natural gas is of crucial importance to Turkey as the energy-hungry country uses a significant portion of imported Iranian gas to generate electricity.
