UNDER PRESSURES FROM US, TURKEY REJECTS GAS DEALS WITH IRAN
ANKARA 24 July (IPS) The Islamic Republic is about to receive a yet another humiliating slap by its neighbours after it was learned Monday in Ankara that under heavy pressures from the United States, Turkey may not buy Iranian gas".
"Heavily pressured by the US, Turkey might not buy gas from Iran", announced Monday the usually well-informed Turkish Daily News (TDN), accusing at the same time the Turkish oil officials as having entered a deal with neighbouring Iran for the purchase of natural gas without taking into consideration "big games played in the oil and gas business".
Earlier in the week, Iran protested to the Republic of Azerbaijan for starting feasibility studies for oil exploration in the Caspian Sea’s "Alborz" area that is claimed by Iran.
Both Iranian Foreign and Oil ministries warned Baku that the Islamic Republic would not authorise any foreign firms to start activities in the field and would stop activities", but they did not spelled out how Tehran could stop Azerbaijan entering in agreement with foreign oil companies for the development of the disputed oil reserves in Alborz.
According to an August 1966 agreement signed with Iran by the Turkey's Islamist dominated coalition government of Necmettin Erbakan, who was toppled following a quasi-military coup, Turkey would buy 7 billions cubic metres of natural gas from Iran for 25 years.
"When Turkey, under pressure from the United States, delayed the completion of the pipeline on its territory, Iran made a gesture and agreed to delay the project for a year, provided that gas would be pumped to Turkey as of 30 July this year", said Ms. Laaleh Sari-ibrahimoglu of the English-language TDN.
"Analysts close to both Russia's Blue Stream Project as well as to the Iranian gas deal that Turkey signed in 1996 strongly argue that neither of those projects appear to be realistic with the former for technical reasons and the latter due to US politics preventing Ankara from byuing gas from Iran, which is still subject to the Dual Containment policy", the daily added.
The mistake for Turkey was to sign the gas agreement with Iran as take or pay which meant that even if facilities to pump the gas are not ready at an agreed time, Turkey has to pay for the gas that it does not buy.
"With just a few days left before the 30 July deadline under which Turkey has to buy the Iranian gas, government sources close to the deal were saying that Turkey might find another excuse to delay buying the gas", the newspaper pointed out, adding that Turkey's Energy Ministry now says that Iran has failed to complete the new pumping station thus failing to meet its obligations, preventing Turkey from buying the gas on time.
But Iran disputes that claim, accusing Turkey of not respecting neither of its engagements, yielding to US pressures.
Turkey has to start buying gas from Iran on 30 July, as on August 1 the United States is expected to renew the sanctions imposed on Iran under the ILSA (Iran-Libya Sanctions Act) that limits investing in Iranian energy sector for countries or companies to US $20 millions only.
But many European oil firms, including the France’s Total and Italy’s ENI, have ignored the sanctions.
Though the measures should not affect Turkey as the investments on Iranian soil have been done by Tehran itself, but Turkish informed sources say "in practice" Washington is against Ankara buying gas from Iran, which continues to be on the American list of states sponsoring terrorist organisations.
A government source close to the 1996 talks on buying Turkmenistan gas via Iran says that there had been no rationale behind making a deal with Iran while Turkey's earlier plan to buy gas from Turkmenistan via Iran was prevented.
But a Turkish earlier attempt to buy gas from Turkmenistan and transported via Iranian facilities had been blocked by the United Sates, suggesting the Transcaspian Pipeline Project (TCP), under which Turkmenian gas would be pipeled via the Caspian Sea to Turkey instead.
Turkey has currently been relying heavily on Russia to meet its gas needs while it has been buying LNG from Nigeria and Algeria. Turkey buys 6 to 8 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from Russia. Turkey's natural gas demand is estimated to reach to about 55 billion cubic meters in 2010 and 82 billion cubic meters in the year 2020.
Turkmenistan has a gas reserve of 21 trillion cubic meters that it has been striving to market to the outside world. The easiest solution for Turkmenistan was to sell its gas through Iran due its proximity. Turkmenistan President Saparmurad Niyazov proposed he could meet European and Turkish gas demands for almost 50 years recalling that the gas has been lying under soil. Then the talks with Turkmenistan started. ENDS TURKEY IRAN GAS 24701