03 August 2015, News Wires – Iran has resumed the flow of gas to Turkey following an explosion on a key pipeline that shut in supplies a week ago.
It is not clear, however, if the pipeline – which was blown up by saboteurs in the eastern Turkish province of Agri last month – is running at normal capacity.
Iran’s Oil Ministry news agency Shana cited the director of dispatching at National Iranian Gas Company as saying on Sunday that flows had resumed.
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said later that flows had only been partially restored.
“Of the two lines in the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, there is no flow in one of them and repairs are ongoing. There is flow in the back up line,” Reuters quoted Yildiz as saying.
No injuries were reported following last week’s blast about 15 kilometres inside the Turkish border. The explosion caused a fire that was swiftly put out.
The pipeline carries around 10 billion cubic metres of Iranian gas to Turkey per year, as Iran is the second gas provider for Turkey after Russia.
According to reports in the local Turkish press the attack resembled those of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who struck the pipeline before. However, there has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.
Turkey launched air strikes on PKK camps in northern Iraq two weeks ago, which has also included bombing Islamic State militants in northern Syria.
The actions came as a response to the most recent attack by Islamic State militants in the south-western Turkish town of Suruc, which claimed the lives of at least 32 people, on 20 July.
Armed attacks on police and gendarmerie in Turkey’s mostly Kurdish south-east, crisscrossed by several energy pipelines, have increased sharply in recent weeks.
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