Remember when Iran and Turkmenistan got into a dispute over the price of gas Ashgabat was selling to Tehran? Well, Iran is backing down:
On April 19, Iranian officials, who have managed to fight the international community to a standoff in the confrontation over the country’s nuclear program, were forced to admit defeat in the gas pricing dispute. “If Turkmenistan wants a logical increase in the price of gas, it is okay with Iran because this country [Turkmenistan] is selling its gas to Russia with a new price,” Ali Kordan, Iran’s vice oil minister, was quoted by the Fars New Agency as saying. The announcement served as tacit recognition that the regional pricing structure for gas had been blown up by the March decision by the Russian conglomerate Gazprom to pay Central Asian producers a “European market” price for gas exports.
Gazprom to the rescue? What a fun precedent for the region!
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Bloody double standard. Wasn’t it Ahmedinajad himself who said oil was too cheap at $115/bbl?