Iran can produce enough gas to avoid imports

Iran can produce enough gas to meet domestic demand even in the absence of any imports from Turkmenistan, Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said on Saturday, the Students news agency ISNA reported. Iran sits on the world's second-largest gas reserves, but it has been slow to develop its resources, and faced a gas shortage last winter as demand surged and was exacerbated when Turkmenistan stopped its supplies citing technical issues.
Gas imports from Turkmenistan resumed in April. Nozari said Iran had now brought extra supplies onstream to prevent a repeat of last winter's shortage. "The country's preparation to meet domestically (needed) gas is to an extent that we will have no difficulty even if we do not import any gas from Turkmenistan," said Nozari.
Iran, which said Ashghabat Turkmenistan wanted to be paid more for its gas, is now negotiating a price for continuing gas imports from Turkmenistan. Iran uses the Turkmen gas to supply a region of the country that is difficult to reach from Iran's national gas grid and its huge reserves in the south.
The Islamic state has long sought to promote itself as a transit route for oil and gas from central Asian states but the United States, which has not had diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic since 1980, has been pushing for alternative export channels.