MNA reported that Iran has developed a plan to launch a new pipeline, aiming to boost gas supply to the Caspian Sea provinces and cut dependency on gas imports from Turkmenistan.

Mr Javad Owji MD of National Iranian Gas Company said that the 160 kilometer proposed pipeline is projected to carry natural gas from Semnan province to Mazandaran province. The project will be finished at the cost of IRR 3.5 trillion within 2 years. Iran imports 15 million to 18 million cubic meters of gas per day from Turkmenistan but the figure reaches 30 million cubic meters during winter.

Mr Owji said that imports of natural gas from Turkmenistan into Iran have decreased by 52% over the H1 of the current Iranian year compared to the same period last year, which began on March 20.

According to BP, Iran imported some 10.2 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan last year while exporting some 8.4 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey. Last year, gas consumption and production in Iran amounted to about 153.3 billion cubic meters and 151.8 billion cubic meters respectively.

Iran also barters around 400,000 cubic meters of its gas to Armenia for electricity. With Azerbaijan, Iran is using swaps which accounts for one million cubic meters of gas per day.