Iran negotiating deals to transit gas to Europe

TEHRAN, Sept. 24 (MNA) - Iran is currently holding negotiations for deals to transit natural gas to Europe, according to Deputy Oil Minister Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr. Iran can be the most reliable source of natural gas for Europe in the long term, the deputy oil minister for planning affairs told reporters at a press conference in Tehran on Sunday. “Iran is currently exporting gas to Turkey. The country has signed gas-swap deals with Armenia and Azerbaijan. Negotiations are also underway to ink gas export deals with Switzerland, Iraq, Pakistan, and Syria,” the IRNA news agency quoted him as saying. On September 9, National Iranian Gas Company Managing Director Javad Owji said Iran and Turkey have agreed to transfer natural gas from Turkmenistan to Europe. On September 4, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi and Turkish Development Minister Cevdet Yilmaz held talks in Tehran on increasing exports of Iranian gas to Turkey. Daily gas production in Iran is about 600 million cubic meters, and this is projected to increase to 1.2 billion cubic meters in the future. According to the National Iranian Gas Company, the country's oil and natural gas reserves account for 10 percent and 16 percent of total world reserves, respectively. Iran, with 155 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves, ranks fourth worldwide, after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. With 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, Iran has the world's second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia.