And now the expected lifting of sanctions and resumption of relations with the West increases the chances for Iranian gas reaching those markets.

Iran’s geographical location makes it possible for the country to bring its gas to markets in Europe only via routes going through Turkey or Azerbaijan.

Each of those routes has its own advantages. The Turkish route for bringing Iran’s gas to Europe is still much shorter than the one running through

Azerbaijan.

But it is the Turkish route that is currently facing a serious risk. The unstable political situation in Turkey’s eastern provinces, which began during the parliamentary elections, is still a risk for making long-term investments in this region.

The Iranian authorities are aware of this problem. The Iranian side said last week that taking into account the unstable political situation in eastern provinces of Turkey, Tehran is considering alternative routes for supplying goods from the country to Europe, bypassing Turkey. One of these alternative routes for Iran is Azerbaijan.

In short, Iran’s gas cannot be supplied to the European markets without Azerbaijan now. Even if Iran uses the Turkish route for supplying natural gas to Europe, it will be unable to bypass Azerbaijan's TANAP project.

In an interview with Russian media recently, Director for International Relations of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Azizullah Ramazani said

that Iran could use the Turkish Stream pipeline to be built by Russia after the sanctions are lifted.

Linking up with the Turkish Stream is financially disadvantageous to Iran. In order to connect Iran with the Turkish Stream it will be necessary to create an

infrastructure in at least 13 provinces of Turkey, through which TANAP will run.

With this in mind, one can say that in case of supplying Iranian gas to European markets, the Azerbaijani route is currently the only one and has no

alternatives.

TANAP or the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline is a natural gas pipeline from Azerbaijan through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

 

(Trend)