Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Cabinet session on Wednesday, Owji said President Ebrahim Raisi's administration has made great efforts to settle the debt since it came into office some 20 months ago.
“Fortunately, with the good measures taken in the past period of 20 months, we have fully paid off the debt to the Turkmen side in three installments, and the full amount of the original debt has been settled,” he said.
Iran and Turkmenistan are both among the biggest natural gas producers in the world. Despite its major natural gas fields in the south, Iran has imported gas from Turkmenistan since 1997, especially for domestic use in its northern provinces during winter and for swap transfer purposes.
Under a swap agreement, Iran currently imports 5-6 million cubic meters per day of natural gas for domestic consumption from the northeastern neighbor while exporting the same amount from its own natural gas supply to Azerbaijan in Iran’s northwest.
On Tuesday, the two countries signed five agreements to expand their economic and energy cooperation.
Owji expressed hopes that Iran can expand its gas trade, including import, export, swap, and transit, with the signing of new agreements with Turkmenistan as well as other neighboring countries.
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