Iran Finalizes Gas Supply Deal with Iraq
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Iranian oil ministry official said the country has sealed the agreement to supply natural gas to neighboring Iraq.
Deputy Oil Minister for International and Commercial Affairs Ali Majedi on Monday said the deal to transfer Iranian natural gas to Iraq has been finalized.
He said with the progress made in negotiations between the two countries over the deal, gas exports to Iraq will start this Iranian year (March 21, 2014 - March 20, 2015).
Iranian and Iraqi oil ministers on July 21, 2013, signed the first deal to transfer Iran’s natural gas to two Iraqi power plants.
The project is aimed at supplying Al-Baghdad and Al-Mansouriyah power plants in Iraq with 25 million cubic meters (mcm) per day of natural gas.
In April it was announced that work on the construction of Iranian part of a gas pipeline to Iraq has witnessed a 75 percent progress and the pipeline will become operational within four months.
After the completion of the project Iran can export five million cubic meters of natural gas to Iraq in the first phase and the exports will reach 10mcm in next stages.
Majedi further referred to an agreement for transferring Iranian gas to Europe via Iraq and Syria and said given the turmoil in Syria, implementing the deal has been halted for now.
Once the situation in Syria gets back to normal, the three countries can resume the agreement, he said.
Iran, which has the largest gas reserves in the world, seeks to enhance gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments.
In its Statistical Review of World Energy released in June last year, the BP classed Iran as the world’s top gas reserves holder with 33.6 trillion cubic meters.
The company downgraded Russia’s reserves estimate to 32.9 trillion cubic meters from 44.6 trillion cubic meters in its earlier report, putting global proven gas reserves at 187.3 trillion cubic meters as of the end of 2012.
