The Iranian media outlet IRNA reports that Iran’s Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh was quoted as saying on 29 January that Iran is filing another complaint at the International Court of Arbitration against Turkmenistan.
“Turkmenistan claims Iran owes them $1.5 billion, but we believe the number is not right. We believe their price is very high and should decrease… Our other complaint is about the quality of the gas imported from Turkmenistan”, Zangeneh said.
According to the media outlet, Iran’s complaint has three parts: Turkmenistan’s cutting off the gas without prior notice on January 2017, low quality of the gas, and the high price.
Let us recall that Iran first announced its intention to file a lawsuit to the International Court of Arbitration in May 2017.On 9 May Hamid Reza Araqi, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), reported that Iran’s documents were ready to be submitted to the International Court of Arbitration and added that Turkmenistan had been notified of the decision.
Iran last made a statement on 10 January saying that the dispute between Iran and Turkmenistan over a natural gas deal had reached its peak and the case would most probably be referred to the International Court of Arbitration.
Let us recall that in late 2016 a public row broke out between Iran and Turkmenistan after Turkmengaz demanded that the NIGC settle the debt of $1,8 billion.
The Iran media outlets reported that after lengthy negotiations the sides had come to mutual agreement.Despite this, on 1 January 2017 Turkmenistan cut off gas supply to Iran.