Press TV- Iran is discussing possible discounts in its sales of natural gas to Turkey after a court of arbitration ruled in Ankara�s favor in a dispute over pricing, Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh says.�
Turkey receives about 10 billion cubic meters of gas from Iran a year under a 25-year deal signed in 1996 but Ankara has taken Tehran to international arbitration over�the pricing which it deems too expensive.
While Ankara�s first attempt was quashed by the International Chamber of Commerce in Switzerland in 2014, Zangeneh said on Tuesday night that the second ruling had been issued in Turkey�s favor, obliging Iran to a 13% discount.
�Negotiations with the Turkish side on mechanisms of cutting the price of Iran�s exported gas by 13% are underway in order to reach an understanding on the delivery of gas and a time-frame,� Zangeneh told the state television.
�There are discussions on how we will repay the discount which should have been implemented for the period before,� he said, indicating that the sum to be returned to Turkey totaled $2 billion.
The minister said Turkey was demanding that the price be cut by 25% but the arbitration had agreed to half of it.
Turkey�s state-owned Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAS) took the case to the court of arbitration in 2012. Iran is Turkey�s second supplier of gas after Russia, providing for one-fifth of the country�s consumption.
The gas exports are carried out via a 2,577 km (1,601 miles) pipeline running from Tabriz to Ankara.