Iranian officials are negotiating resumption of Turkmen gas imports with the authorities of Turkmenistan, a member of the Iranian parliament's energy commission Seyed Mousa Mousavi said in an interview with the Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency (ICANA) on Saturday.
Mousavi expressed hope the country’s oil and energy ministries will take measures to prevent interruptions in the supply of gas and electricity to Iran in the winter.
"According to the Head of Iran's Program and Budget Organization, the country's electricity deficit ranges from 11,000 to 12,000 megawatts," Mousavi said referring to the reports of shortages of electricity and gas in the winter.
The Iranian MP said resources such as gas imports from Turkmenistan should be used in solving this issue.
In January 1, 2017, Turkmenistan has stopped gas exports to Iran due to the debt of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) for the previous gas supplies.After lengthy negotiations, the parties did not come to a solution on the issue of payments and the Turkmen Gas State Concern was forced to file a claim with the ICC International Court of Arbitration (ICA).
In 2020, the ICA announced a verdict over the Iranian-Turkmen gas dispute in favor of Turkmenistan.
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi have held talks on the sidelines of the SCO summit in mid-September in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe. The Heads of State agreed to resolve the natural gas issue between the countries.