Iranian natural gas exports to Turkey are expected to resume next month, the head of the Iranian Gas Transmission Company told Iran’s energy ministry news service, Shana.

Flows from Iran to Turkey stopped on March 31 after an explosion on the pipeline on Turkish soil. The incident on the Iran-Turkey Bazargan border was to be repaired by Turkey, who later declared force majeure on imports.

According to Mehdi Jamshidi-Dana, Iran rejected the force majeure claims on the 25-year gas supply contract after a private investigation on the pipeline and potential cause for the explosion. Amid resistance and no repairs, Tehran has even offered to repair the infrastructure in just over a week, the official said.

“Our prediction is that the repairs of the Iranian gas export pipeline to Turkey will be completed in July and the gas flow will be resumed,” he told Shana.

Jamshidi-Dana noted that if Turkey insists on the force majeure argument to avoid shipments, Iran can take Botas to an arbitration court and enforce its contractual terms of take-or-pay. He said the long-term contract expires in 2025, but didn’t disclose details on its terms.

Without directly accusing Ankara from forging the pipeline damage to stop gas purchases, the official said “Turkey’s plan is always to reduce its gas imports in the first half of the year, due to the onset of the hot season. This is what this country has been doing for years.”

As reported by Kallanish Energy, Turkey has taken advantage of low spot prices and increased its imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), while decreasing pipeline imports from major suppliers, including Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran.

In March, LNG imports surpassed piped gas imports for the first time ever.

This post appeared first on Kallanish Energy News.