Iranian Supply to Turkey Resumes

Iranian gas supply to Turkey has resumed since last night, following a stoppage caused by an explosion to the transit pipeline in Turkey.

In an announcement yesterday, spokesman for supplier National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Majid Boujarzadeh said that the export of Iranian gas to Turkey had resumed following a request from Turkey. The request comes following the repair of the damaged section of pipeline.

Gas supply resumed at 6.30 pm local time last night, Mr. Boujarzadeh said. He also said that Turkish gas company Botas had requested that the company increase gas supply to Turkey, raising it from 27 million cubic metres a day to 30 million cubic metres.

The pipeline explosion has once again been attributed to terrorist action. Yesterday, Turkish Minister for Energy Taner Yildiz said that the explosion in the pipeline was caused by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) but said that sabotage would not help them to achieve their aims.

This is the second time in the past two months that interruption to supply has been blamed on PKK. In June, supply through the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) pipeline was stopped for a week following an explosion on that line. That explosion was also attributed to the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

Turkey, Iran, NATO, the United States and the European Union all count the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a terrorist group.