Iran, Turkmenistan Reach Agreement on Gas Price

Text of unattributed report quoting Fars news agency on “Stop” column headlined: “Iran agrees on gas price imported from Turkmenistan” published by Iranian newspaper E’temad-e Melli on 5 May

The deputy oil minister of gas affairs has said: We have come to an agreement on a pricing formula and the price of gas imported from Turkmenistan in 2008.

Speaking about the negotiations, the Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Company, Seyyed Reza Kasa’izadeh said: During the negotiations held on 25 April, the pricing formula for natural gas imported from Turkmenistan in 2008 was finalized and signed by the two sides.

He said: During the negotiations an additional price agreement to the 1995 contract as well as an initial memorandum of understanding on the cooperation of the two countries were signed.

He clarified: According to the agreements, the volume of gas imported from Turkmenistan will be about 30 m cu. m a day. This is equal to the gas consumption in the petrochemical industry of the country.

He commented on the formation of the joint working group between the two countries and said: The working group has to study the strategies to increase the volume of exchanged gas between countries.

He added: The group also has to finalize the studies on the imported gas price formula for 2009. Turkmenistan follows the goal of selling gas in international prices from that year.

Originally published by E’temad-e Melli, Tehran, in Persian 05 May 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.