The pipeline has been severed numerous times over the years, but never in such quick succession.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for the latest severing, which took place in Turkey’s Agri province. The previous week’s incident took place a few miles inside Iran. No one took credit for that incident.
That sparked speculation that the previous explosion may have been accidental. All the previous incidents have taken place inside Turkey and the PKK has normally been quick to claim credit.
Iran said the pipeline broken two weeks ago was repaired and put back into operation after just 30 hours—a very speedy repair.
Turkish officials said the latest pipe break would probably take a week to repair—a slow repair job.
Turkey said the shortfall in gas supplies from Iran didn’t matter and would be easily filled through an increase in gas piped from Azerbaijan and Russia.
Turkey normally receives about 15 to 18 billion cubic meters a day of Iranian gas or about 2 to 3 percent of Iran’s gas production.