TURKEY DENIED IRAN ANNOUNCING GAS EXPORT TO ANKARA STARTED
By IPS Energy Correspondent Parviz Sahra’i
TEHRAN First of August (IPS) As predicted by this news service, the Islamic Republic of Iran was again slapped in the face when Turkey announced Monday that due to "technical problems" on the Iranian side, it could not start taking natural gas from Iran on the schedule, due for 30 July.
The announcement from Ankara came at about almost the same time that in Tehran, Iranian officials would announce to the nation that gas was being sent to Turkey, heralding the start of the billions dollars agreement.
"The natural gas export to Turkey had started in the presence of officials from BOTAS", a Public Relations official of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) told an Iranian radio station as Ankara was reporting some delay in the fulfilment of the agreement.
"In line with the agreement signed in 1996, gas exports to Turkey would start on Monday", the embattled Iranian Oil Minister Bizhan Namdar-Zanganeh had confirmed to the pro-reform daily "Aftab Yazd".
Saying that Iran had not yet demanded compensation from Turkey, Mr. Namdar-Zanganeh had warned that in case Turkey was not ready to buy the Iranian natural gas on time, compensation issues might be brought to the agenda by the Iranian side.
Turkey immediately reacted, saying payment of compensation to Iran was "out of the question", reiterating that it would start purchasing Iranian gas once the required document was sent to Ankara and other related procedures were completed, the Turkish Energy Minister stated.
Deputy Oil Minister and chairman of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Hamdollah Mohammad-Nejad had also assured that the deal would start "as planned" and in line with those assurances, some Iranian newspapers went as far as praising Ankara for "not having yield to pressures from Washington and the Zionist Entity", the expression the Islamic Republic uses for Israel.
Under the deal, Iran is due to export three billion cubic metres of gas in the first year, rising gradually to 10 billion cubic metres a year from 2007, when the pipeline will start working at full capacity.
The agreement was sealed during the term of Turkey's former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, an Islamist veteran who is now out of politics under a constitutional court ruling against him for anti-secular activities.
Turkey was originally supposed to start importing the gas early last year, but not only failed to complete its part of the pipeline in time, but also refused to pay compensation.
In January 2000 the two sides agreed on a postponement, citing July 30 as the new inauguration date and extending the 23 billions US dollars contract term from 22 to 25 years.
The project has faced strong objections by the United States on the grounds that it was both a rival to a multi-million-dollar pipeline project to carry natural gas from Turkmenistan to western markets via Turkey and against the sanctions imposed on the development of Iranian energy potentials.
The English-language "Turkish Daily News" (TDN) had reported last week that under "heavy pressures" from the United States, Ankara might be forced to stop buying natural gas from neighbouring Iran, "at least for some times".
To appease Washington, Ankara has repeatedly asserted that the trans-Caspian pipeline is a priority, maintaining that it needs both projects to meet a rapidly growing energy demand.
However, soweverome analysts said Turkey is looking for excuses for delaying the delivery and avoiding paying compensation. "Technically they are still not prepared to take the gas", said a senior energy analyst who asked not to be named. "This is the real issue, the metering station is just an excuse to buy time".
"They are looking for time to prepare their side of the pipeline and not pay compensation", the analyst told Reuters.
Quoting unnamed energy ministry official, the usually well-informed TDN said that the gas transfer would finally begin in mid August.
Retracting angrily his earlier statement, Mr. Mohammad-Nejad, was quoted Monday by the official Iranian news agency IRNA as saying that Iran had completed its commitments but "the other side is looking for excuses to delay imports."
"It has been two weeks now that gas has been injected to the station, and right now, 900 pounds per square inch (psi) of natural gas are currently behind the entrance taps to Turkey and ready to flow," he said.
Mohammad-Nejad, added that Turkey had requested just two days ago that all the gas meters be "tested by the constructor and in their presence."
"Iran's National Gas Company, in order to express its goodwill, agreed to this request, and at the same time, officially requested that Turkey agree to receiving gas as of July 30," Mohammad-Nejad said.
But Turkey's Energy Minister Zeki Cakan on Tuesday played down Iranian accusation that Turkey was dragging its feet, citing "metering problems" at the Iranian side.
"Once the Iranian side completes the metering station at Bazargan, experts from both countries confirm its conformity, prepare a certificate to that end and send it to us, we will immediately start gas purchases" he said, implying indirectly that the Iranians might have manipulated the metering installations in order to over charge the Turkish partner of the project, BOTAS.
He said Ankara and Teheran have agreed to postpone the inauguration of Iranian gas exports to Turkey to allow time for a technical hitch to be sorted out.
He said Turkey had asked to test the metering system just two days ago and Iran had agreed to the request.
"We try our best to keep bilateral relations at good level at least as much as the Iranian side does", Cakan told Reuters in an interview, when asked about an Iranian official's comment that Turkey was "looking for excuses" delaying the project.
Iranian analysts saw the new delay in the execution of the agreement as another blow for the politically isolated theocratic regime of Iran.
"The ruling Iranian ayatollahs are satisfied to be the flag bearers of anti-American and anti-Israeli crusade, but the fact is that the country is denied billions of dollars of revenues for ever and that is a betrayal of the coming generations", commented Mr. Mohammad Arasi, a US-based Iranian political analyst.
Adding to the confusion, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the "sole problem on the issue is related with the scale of the ceremony which is planned to be organized for the launching of the project.
"The Iranian side wanted presidential participation at the ceremony, but we did not agree on such an organisation. Later, they proposed a prime-ministerial gathering", a Turkish Foreign Ministry official told the TDN, adding that Ankara would prefer a low-profile ceremony, thus dashing Iranian hopes to use the occasion boasting that "once again, they have rubbed the nose of the "great Satan" to earth and proving the "inefficiency" of the American sanctions.
The "inauguration" of the agreement came as two Iranian dailies on Tuesday praised Turkey to stand by its commitments ton the gas export deal between the Islamic Republic and Turkey, saying it would "strengthen regional security."
"This is the largest gas deal involving Iran and which will help enhance our image abroad", wrote the pro-government English-language daily "Iran News".
Iran has "26.6 trillion cubic meters of known natural gas reserves, which can become a lucrative source of alternative income to oil", noted the daily. This additional source of income, it implied, can go a long way in boosting the process of transforming the economy.
Indeed, "the sky is the limit" as to future earnings from oil and gas, not to mention "the benefit from billions of dollars of extra revenues", the paper said, killing the bird before shooting at it.
The daily concluded by praising Turkey's shrewdness for moving ahead with the
deal notwithstanding pressure from the U.S. and other Western states as well as
its home front not to go ahead, saying it acted to "safeguard its own
interests" and that the deal will open a "way for lasting peace and
prosperity in our region."
"The prudence shown by Turkish officials to remove hitches in energy
co-operation with the Islamic Republic of Iran is appreciable", commented the
conservatives-controlled "Keyhan International".
However, the daily regretted the "snags" in implementation of the deal, blaming them on "Ankara's unnatural relations with the illegal Zionist entity."
"Turkey's ties with Israel have no justifications. We see no political profit for Turkey in dallying with the sworn enemy of the Muslim ummah (Nation) at the expense of misunderstanding among brothers-in-faith. Worst of all is military co-operation between the heirs of the Ottoman Sultans and the inheritors of the racist legacy of the Austrian Jew Theodore Herzl who once sent a beggarly petition to the caliphal court in Istanbul asking permission for a few European Zionists to visit and live near Bei-ul-Moqaddas (Jerusalem) in Palestine", the anti-Semite paper it said.
"If Turkish officials can show the will to remove the economic hitches for import of Iranian natural gas, they can also show the same spirit in the field of politics, culture and defence in the joint interests of the Islamic world," the editorial concluded.
According to plans worked out by Iranian and Turkish experts, gas will be pumped to Turkey's capital Ankara from Tabriz in northwestern Iran through a pipeline stretching 270km (170 miles) in Iranian soil and 1,050 km (656 miles) in Turkey. ENDS IRAN TURKEY GAS 1801