Iran To Pump Gas To Iraq By March 2015: Official

Tehran, June 15, IRNA – The construction work of Iran-Iraq gas pipeline will be completed by next Iranian calendar year (starting March 21, 2015), announced a senior energy official here on Sunday. The Managing Director of Iran Gas Engineering and Development Company Alireza Gharibi added that Iran, from then, will start daily exporting of seven million cubic meters of natural gas to Iraq. Gharibi stressed that the figure could be increased after completion of Iranˈs sixth gas pipeline to Iraq. Tehran and Baghdad have recently agreed on export of 40 million cubic meters of Iranian gas to the neighboring Iraq, he said. Meanwhile, Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs and Trade Ali Majedi said that Iran will start export of natural gas to Iraq next Iranian calendar year. Majedi stressed that Tehran and Baghdad have reached an agreement on export of 25 million cubic meters of Iranian gas to Iraq. ˈGas exports to Iraq will start early next Iranian year after completion of the pipeline,” Majedi said. He noted that the construction work of the gas pipeline shows a 80-percent progress. Iran-Iraq gas pipeline originating from Assaluyeh, near the massive offshore South Pars Gas Field in Southern Iran, will continue into Iraq to feed three power plants in the Southern Iraqi province of Basra. The pipeline is designed in such a way that it will be able to deliver gas to other Muslim countries like Jordan, Syria and Lebanon in the future. Iran, which sits on the worldˈs second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, is making efforts to raise its gas output by more foreign and domestic investments, especially in the Southern Pars gas field./end