Türkiye suspends imports of Turkmen gas

Türkiye’s Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said that concerns over sanctions have prevented Ankara from resuming gas supplies through Iranian infrastructure.

TodayPress TV reports, citing Middle East Eye, that Bayraktar told journalists on Thursday that Türkiye had been forced to suspend imports of Turkmen gas via Iran due to pressure from the United States.

Ankara began receiving gas from Turkmenistan in March 2025 under an agreement envisaging the import of 1.3 billion cubic metres of gas annually using Iran’s gas transit infrastructure.

BOTAŞ, Türkiye’s gas importer, held an import licence under the agreement valid until 2033.

In October 2025, Ashgabat halted gas supplies. At the time, the Turkmen side said the two countries had a short-term contract and that deliveries to Ankara could not continue because no agreement had been reached on gas volumes and pricing.

Earlier this year, Bayraktar announced that imports of Turkmen gas via Iran would resume, but the plans did not materialise.

The minister has now said that the main obstacles to resuming supplies are the US-Iran war and Washington’s sanctions policy.

“We stopped it because the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) was intervening in this matter in a certain way. Although we made no payments to Iran, tensions between Iran and the United States escalated,” Bayraktar said.

Bayraktar noted that Türkiye has additional transmission capacity in the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and could easily double the volume of gas it exports to Europe.

According to the report, the terms of Türkiye’s existing gas contracts with Iran expire in November. It remains unclear whether Ankara is prepared to renew them.

Zahra Mammadova