Turkey has a 15-year-old contract with Iran written on a take-or-pay basis. That means the contract requires Turkey to take 10 billion cubic meters of gas every year—or to pay for that volume even if it doesn’t take it.
The pipeline has frequently been cut by bombs, presumably set off by rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkey says it doesn’t have to pay when such acts stop deliveries.
Some in Iran think the Turks go slowly on making repairs so as to avoid getting more gas from Iran. The Mehr news agency last week quoted unnamed sources as saying the gas Turkey gets from Russia is cheaper and the Turks prefer to buy more from Russia and less from Iran. But the 1996 contract inhibits them.
Javad Oji, the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Co., was quoted by the daily Iran as saying there have been four pipeline interruptions thus far this year.
Mehr quoted him as saying, “Since the provision of security on Turkish territory is the responsibility of that country and such incidents have happened several times, Botas [the Turkish state pipeline company] has to compensate for the delays.”
Oji did not point out that Iran has repeatedly halted deliveries to Turkey in the middle of the winter when communities in northwestern Iran need the gas for heat. The pipeline that delivers gas to Turkey also supplies the northwest of Iran. There is plenty of gas for both countries in the summer, but not in the depths of winter cold.
The Fars news agency quoted Yadollah Baibardi as saying this week that Iran has sent 4.195 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey since Now Ruz. That would be 84 percent of the volume Turkey should have taken to be on pace for 10 billion cubic meters over the full year.
In 2009, Iran took Turkey to an arbitrator who ruled that Turkey had to pay $600 million for gas Turkey did not take the previous year.