Gazprom Ups Turkish Supply After Another Explosion

Gazprom has increased its supply of gas to Turkey after yet another explosion on the Iran-Turkey gas pipeline at the Turkish town of Eleskirt.

The explosion, which is the third such explosion to hit a Turkish gas pipeline in recent weeks and the second to hit the Iran-Turkey pipeline in the past fortnight, blew up a section of the gas pipeline late last night at around 10.30pm local time. The pipeline affected carries gas around 10 billion cubic metres of gas between Iran and Turkey every year.

At least 28 military personnel were injured in the blast, the Hurriyet newspaper has reported.

"The explosion occurred on a natural gas pipeline in Eleskirt [in the region of Agri] as a military vehicle was passing, wounding 28 soldiers," the Anatolian news agency reports Agri Governor Mehmet Tekinarslan as saying.

The explosion is reported to be the work of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a terrorist group which has been reported to be responsible for several pipeline explosions in recent years.

With supply halted through the pipeline, Russian supplier Gazprom Export has increased its supply to the country, the Platt news agency has reported, increasing current supply by 50 per cent.

"Our Turkish customers asked us to increase supplies from 32 million cu m/day to 48 million cu m/day today," the news agency reports a company spokesman as saying today.