Iran to Use Southeast Europe as Corridor for Gas Exports: NIGEC Head
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The director of International Affairs of National Iranian Gas Exports Company (NIGEC) said Iran wants to use Southeast Europe as a corridor for its gas exports to Western European countries.
“Our capacity will increase to 1.2 billion cubic meters per day during next five years. So we have enough gas for export,” Azizollah Ramezani told New Europe in an interview published on Tuesday.
He made the remarks on the sidelines of the 9th Southeast Europe Energy Dialogue, organized by IENE in Thessaloniki on June 30.
Saying that a huge portion of Iran’s gas comes from its giant off-shore gas field, known as South Pars, Ramezani stressed that the Islamic Republic has a lot of gas in addition to that in South Pars and needs foreign financing for exploration, production and transmission.
At the moment, a 40-inch pipeline, which runs for 2,577 kilometers, connects Tabriz in northwest Iran to Ankara in Turkey, the director of the NIGEC said.
“This 40-inch pipeline, according to Turkish delegation, has more capacity. So if we reach some agreement with European countries or Southeast European countries this pipeline, which is connecting Iran with Turkey, will be used as carrier of gas to Europe,” he said.
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.
