ANKARA - Iran has halted gas supplies to Turkey after an explosion on a gas pipeline, prompting Russian giant Gazprom to increase its exports by 50 percent, officials said Monday.
"The pipeline was partly damaged by an explosion at 11:40 pm (2040 GMT) on Sunday" near the town of Dogubayazit, some 17 kilometers (10 miles) from the Iranian border, Turkey's state-owned oil and gas company BOTAS.
"As a result, the gas flow from Iran was suspended," a statement from BOTAS said, adding that clients were being supplied from other sources of gas.
Russia's state-controlled Gazprom said it had increased supply to Turkey by 50 percent after the explosion after a demand from the Turkish side.
"Gazprom has increased the volume of its gas exports to Turkey from 20 to 30 million cubic metres per day," the company said in a statement.
BOTAS said repair teams were working on the pipeline, but did not specify when gas flow would be resumed.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.
Dogubayazit's deputy subgovernor Atay Uslu told the Anatolia news agency that a "technical malfunction" could have caused the blast.
He added that a fire broke out on the pipeline after the blast and died down on its own some 20 minutes later.
Iran also confirmed it was halting supplies to Turkey.
"Iran's gas export to Turkey stopped as of last night and there is no export at the current moment," said Deputy Oil Minister Reza Kasaeizadeh, quoted by the Mehr news agency.
The pipeline links the northwest Iranian town of Tabriz with Ankara.
han/mb/ag/smc
09/10/2007 17:11 GMT