The document was signed by the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Majid Chegeni and the head of Turkmengaz State Company Batir Amanov, where Iranian Minister of Petroleum Mohsen Paknejad also was present at the ceremony.

The two neighboring countries also signed three other cooperation documents in the fields of customs, diplomatic cooperation and the sisterhood of the two ports of Amirabad and Türkmenbashi.

The National Leader of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow arrived in Iran this morning to hold talks with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian and was welcomed by Farzaneh Sadegh, the Minister of Roads and Urban Development at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport. 

Over the past years, Iran has been importing part of its natural gas needs from Turkmenistan. Iran imports 23 to 30 million cubic meters of natural gas from Turkmenistan each day in winter to cover its northern and northeastern provinces' needs for gas.  

Iran’s natural gas imports from Turkmenistan started in 2011 when imports stood at 32.4 million cubic meters per day even though they were reduced to 15.3 million cubic meters per day on average over the next 15 years.

Iran and Turkmenistan’s gas trade has experienced ups and downs. In January 2017, the neighboring country halted gas exports to Iran due to a dispute over the price. The dispute was referred to international arbitration, where the court issued a verdict to the benefit of Turkmenistan.

In 2022 the two countries signed a gas swap deal that allowed Turkmenistan to export its natural gas to the Azerbaijan Republic via Iran's territory. The deal which covered swapping up to 2 billion cubic meters annually, opened a new chapter in the two sides' gas cooperation. The gas swap volume rose to 9.2 billion cubic meters last year. Currently, there are two delivery points across the shared borders of the two neighboring countries with 50 mcm/d of gas transfer capacity.