Turkey suspends Turkmen gas imports via Iran due to US sanctions

Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced that Turkey has been forced to halt natural gas imports from Turkmenistan routed through Iran. The suspension follows the intervention of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), as escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran have created a regulatory environment that prevents the resumption of these energy flows, even though Turkey claims no payments were being made directly to Iran.

The import arrangement, which began in March 2025, was based on an annual volume of 1.3 billion cubic meters. While initial flows were interrupted in October 2025 due to pricing and volume disputes, the current blockage is explicitly attributed to the geopolitical friction surrounding U.S. sanctions. Minister Bayraktar noted that the TANAP pipeline currently holds significant excess capacity, which could technically allow Turkey to double its gas exports to Europe. He suggested that Turkmenistan's abundant reserves remain a potential solution to offset declining Azerbaijani supply, though the regulatory hurdles involving Iran currently prevent leveraging these resources.