Iran to Start Gas Exports to Iraq by Spring 2015
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran will start supplying natural gas to neighboring Iraq on a regular basis by the spring of 2015, an Iranian energy official announced.
In the first phase of the Iranian gas exports to Iraq, seven million cubic meters (mcm) of natural gas will be transferred to the Arab country, Managing-Director of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Hamid-Reza Araqi said on Monday.
He added that the amount of gas exports to Iraq will rise to 25 mcm per day.
He also said that Iran plans to double its gas output in the next few years, which will lead to an increase in the amount of gas exports to other countries.
Back in May, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister for International and Commercial Affairs Ali Majedi announced that under a finalized deal, Iran’s gas exports to Iraq will start by March 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 gas pipeline to Iraq stretches from the village of Charmaleh in Iran’s western province of Kermanshah, into the town of Naft Shahr on the border with Iraq.
The pipeline, which is estimated to earn Iran $3.7 billion a year in revenues, will be fed by the massive offshore South Pars gas field in southern Iran.
The South Pars gas field, whose development has been divided into 28 phases, is located in the Persian Gulf straddling the maritime border between Iran and Qatar. It is estimated that the Iranian section of the field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of condensates in place.
It is one of the country's main energy resources. This gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, of which 3,700 square kilometers belongs to Iran.