Iran wants to deliver more natural gas to Turkey, the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Exports Company said Monday, according to Iran's Shana news agency.
The Iranian official visited Turkey to discuss the further potential of the Iran-Turkey gas pipeline and NIGEC held talks with Turkish companies to build electricity power plants.
Turkey imports 10 billion cubic meters of gas from Iran, while the empty gas pipeline capacity from Iran to Turkey is 11.2 billion cubic meters.
"The empty capacity of this pipeline is 11.2 billion cubic meters a year. By installing compressors on their own soil, the Turks could raise this empty capacity to 12 billion cubic meters a year," NIGEC Director Ali Riza Kameli said.
Iran has the world's second largest reserves after Russia. It has natural gas reserves of approximately 29.6 trillion cubic meters or about 15.8 percent of the world's total reserves.
Iran sits on top of the second largest natural gas reserves worldwide, according to the Energy Information Administration. The country has limited gas exports and falls short of its potential due to the Western-imposed sanctions that have hit the energy sector.
The EIA shows that Turkey is the biggest customer of Iran's natural gas and imports more than 90 percent of its gas needs from Iran.
By Gokhan Yildiz
Anadolu Agency
gokhan.yildiz@aa.com.tr