Iran and Türkiye Agree to Route Iranian Natural Gas to Europe

Iran's oil minister returned from Ankara in August 2006 with an agreement to export Iranian natural gas through Türkiye to European markets, the Iranian oil ministry announced.

Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said the two countries had settled on a plan to expand the capacity of Iran's pipeline, which connects to Türkiye's network, and to use roughly five billion cubic meters of available capacity in the Turkish system to carry Iranian gas westward.

The minister said export arrangements had been clarified and would be concluded soon, though he gave no date for when shipments would actually begin.

The two countries are already linked by a pipeline running from the Iranian city of Tabriz to Ankara, a route that opened in December 2001 despite objections from the United States, which is both a long-standing NATO partner of Türkiye and a firm opponent of Iran.

Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in August 2006, in its own words.