Iran cuts natural gas for 10 days: A cold winter without electricity for Turkey?

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The Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) has announced that Iran will not provide Turkey with natural gas through the Gürbulak-Ağrı line for 10 days due to a technical failure on the transmission line.

The Corporation has indicated that an action has been taken so that the related technical failure can be eliminated in a shorter period of time, noting that restrictions on natural gas consumption will still be the case for the industrial facilities with high consumption and electric power plants "in order to protect the balance of the electricity and natural gas system".

The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources has announced that industrial facilities and electric power plants will face restrictions on consumption. The Ministry has stated that all measures have been taken to ensure that consumers will not be affected by the restrictions.

The Ministry has also warned the industrial facilities to cut their natural gas consumption. In a "confidential" notification sent to the facilities, the Ministry has asked them to cut the natural gas consumption by 40 percent starting from 8 am this morning (January 21) until further notice.

In the event that industrial facilities do not comply with this instruction, they will face a penalty fare per unit over 60 percent of use.

Commenting on these recent restrictions on natural gas consumption in industry, İstanbul Chamber of Industry (İSO) Chair Erdal Bahçıvan has raised concerns that the restriction on the natural gas consumption of some facilities using high amounts of gas will lead to "a great stress".

Bahçıvan has recalled that they, as industrialists, have "significantly shouldered the heaviest burden of the cost increases of the past months". The İSO Chair has defined it as "unacceptable" that "in addition to these cost prices, which have become all the more unbearable for heavy industrial sectors, industrialists are now made to pay a price through supply."

"This decision, which will primarily hit exporting sectors while doing our best to ensure an export-based growth, will cause a very serious production and planning stress on our factories," he has noted, warning that the related restriction will "undoubtedly have a negative effect on productivity, production quality and shipment among many other aspects."

Concluding his statement, İSO Chair Erdal Bahçıvan has expressed his hopes that "these problems stemming from channels of supply will be resolved in the shortest possible time." (HA/SD)