Istanbul (Platts)--15Jan2008

Iran failed to restart gas exports to Turkey Monday, Turkey's state-owned
Anadolu news agency reported Tuesday.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan said last week that he had
received an assurance from Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that gas
supplies would return to normal by Monday. Gas exports had been reduced from
29 million cubic meters/day late last year to around 4-5 million cu m/d by
January 1 this year, and to zero by the start of last week.

Officials at Turkey's energy ministry said Monday that Iran was facing
serious problems restarting exports due to extreme cold weather and the need
to maintain supply to its own customers.

Referring to criticism of Turkey's close relationship with Iran, Erdogan
was reported as saying that energy was the reason and asking whether the US
or Israel could meet Turkey's gas needs.

"I will find a solution," he was quoted as saying.

A spokesman for the energy ministry said Monday that Turkey had been
receiving more gas from Russia to offset the loss of Iranian gas. As much as
41 million cu m/d of Russian gas has been arriving in Turkey via the
Transbalkan pipeline and a similar volume arriving daily via the Blue Stream
pipeline, he added. Previously unspecified "technical problems" had led to a
cut in the volume of gas arriving via the Transbalkan line, but these problems
had now been resolved, he confirmed.

The spokesman also confirmed the volume of Azeri gas arriving from the
Shah Deniz gas field, with the line now supplying 15 million cu m/d. However,
re-export of the Azeri gas to Greece had not been restarted as yet, he said.

He explained that Turkish gas importer Botas had received two LNG cargoes
delivered to its Marmara Eregli terminal over the weekend- one of 62
million cu m and the second of unknown quantity.