On November 28, during the XV Summit of the Heads of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) member states in Ashgabat, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan signed a trilateral agreement on swap gas supplies, IRNA news agency reports .

According to the document signed by the oil ministers of Iran and Azerbaijan after the bilateral meeting of Presidents Ebrahim Raisi and Ilham Aliyev , from 1.2 to 2 billion cubic meters of gas will be annually supplied from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan through Iran, the newspaper writes. It is reported that the profits from the deal will allow Iran to provide gas to five of its provinces.

The contract has no end date, and gas supplies will begin on December 25, 2021.

No data is provided on the purchase prices for gas from Turkmenistan.

It should be noted that before the signing of the agreement, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov met twice in eight days in Ashgabat with the Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan Mikail Jabbarov .

The first meeting took place on 18 November. On November 21, it became known about the plans of Baku and Tehran to sign a contract on swap supplies of Turkmen gas to Azerbaijan through Iran. On November 26, two days before the Summit, the President of Turkmenistan again received Jabbarov, with whom he discussed cooperation in the fields of transport and energy.

Such a contract may be beneficial for Iran, since in this case it will not have to transfer its gas to the northern regions bordering with Turkmenistan.

Swap deliveries are used in the absence of the necessary infrastructure for direct gas transportation. In this case, Turkmenistan will export gas to Iran, which in turn will supply the same volumes, but already of its own gas, to Azerbaijan.

Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan