Turkey's energy minister expects Tehran to resume natural gas exports to Ankara next week ending a 15-day cut forced by a cold snap in Iran.

"Our friends (Iran) are working on this issue. The pressure (in the pipeline) increases from time to time and then decreases. But I believe gas will flow again next week," Hilmi Guler told the NTV news channel Thursday.

Iran stopped delivering gas to Turkey in early January, six days after it had to cut back on its exports from 20 million cubic meters (mcm) per day to 5.0 mcm, to compensate for rising domestic consumption.

Consequently Turkey was forced to halt pumping gas to Greece and import more from Russia.

Meanwhile, Guler said that the two countries plan to build a second gas pipeline that would bypass Iranian cities, which is a long-term scheme.

Iran has supplied natural gas to Turkey through a pipeline originating the northwestern city of Tabriz to Ankara since December 2001.

... Payvand News - 01/26/08 ... --