Iran is ready to appeal to international arbitration court on Turkmen gas supplies

Beijing. January 31. Silkroadnews - Iran is ready to appeal to the international arbitration court over the situation with deliveries of Turkmen gas, the Iranian Telegraph Agency (IrTAG) reports referring to the Iran Daily newspaper.
Tehran is ready to file a case with the International Court of Arbitration (ICA) over the quality and price of gas it receives from Turkmenistan, the agency quoted saying by Iran’s oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.
It is noted that the Central Asian country stopped gas supplies to Iran in January 2017, saying the buyer owed $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion for gas that Turkmenistan has already delivered to Iran.
Iran has been importing Turkmen gas since 1997 to supply its northern region, especially in winter, although it has large gas fields in the south of the country.
“They claim Iran owes them $1.5 billion over the gas exports but we believe that figure is not a correct”, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said.
He noted, Iran is ready to dispute over the price at the International Court of Arbitration.
“Our other complaint is about the quality of gas exported from Turkmenistan” he added.
In 2017, the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) announced that it had struggled to resolve disputes with Turkmenistan, but suggested the case could only be resolved through the international arbitration.
NIGC stressed in its statement that it had already paid for the gas received, and also partially repaid the debt to Turkmenistan, which amounted to $4.5 billion “through different methods and based on goodwill”.
The company added, the debts have been accrued over the years when Iran could not make cash transfers due to sanctions. Still, nevertheless, the country tried to compensate for the debt, guaranteeing the provision of goods and services to Turkmenistan for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Turkmenistan stopped exporting natural gas to Iran on the grounds that the country should make prompt repayment of its debts.
Turkmenistan’s move turned to be a surprise for Tehran, especially taking into account it came after two countries reached an agreement on settling the gas dispute after a series of intense talks.
The company announced that it had spent “tens of hours” of negotiations to resolve disputes with Turkmenistan, but all this was unsuccessful. “Therefore, the NIGC has put the referral of Turkmengas to international arbitration on its agenda. Based on the clear clauses of the agreement, Turkmengas was not authorized to cut supplies of natural gas on Iran even though there had been any debts or any delay in payments. This move was a flagrant violation of the agreement and shows that Turkmengas is not a reliable partner in international transactions,” the company’s statement said.