Iran Willing to Cooperate with Russia on Turkey Gas Pipeline
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran's foreign minister said Tehran has not yet entered serious talks with Moscow over involvement in a pipeline project that delivers Russian gas to Turkey, but voiced the Islamic Republic's readiness to work on it.
"Iran has received proposals regarding this issue. We also wish to cooperate with other countries, including Russia, in safely providing the world with energy resources," Mohammad Javad Zarif told Rossiya-24 television on Friday.
However, Zarif noted that Iran "has so far not entered into a serious discussion of these issues."
In December 2014, Russian energy giant Gazprom announced the construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline, which will run across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey. The planned annual capacity of the pipeline is 63 billion cubic meters of gas, according to Gazprom.
The pipeline is expected to become operational in December 2016, according to Sputnik.
Earlier in June, Managing Director of National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) Azizollah Ramezani said Iran could begin to export gas to Europe via the Turkish Stream pipeline being developed by Russia.
"There may be a common field, for example in the area of gas pipelines… In the future Iranian gas pipelines could possibly reach Europe and Russian gas pipelines to Europe may be joined and deliver gas together to Europe," he said.
