Iran will start exporting natural gas to Iraq before March, 2016, which is the end of the current Iranian year, IRNA news agency has reported.
Between 5 and 7mn cubic metres of gas would be exported daily to neighbouring Iraq, according to Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Hamid Reza Araqi.
Addressing a press conference in Tehran on Friday, Araqi said that the Iranian gas exports to Iraq will increase in the next two years after Iran starts transferring supplies to the neighboring country via pipelines from Baghdad and Basra.
Iran has agreed to eventually export 25mn cubic meters (mcm) per day of gas to Iraq, Fars news agency said.
The pipeline stretches across 270km from the village of Charmaleh, in the west of Iran, into the town of Naft Shahr on the border with Iraq.
The pipeline is estimated to bring Iran $3.7bn a year in revenues and will be fed by the massive offshore South Pars gas field in Southern Iran.
The two countries signed an agreement in 2013 under which Tehran would start exporting gas to Iraq to feed three power plants in Baghdad and Diyala. But the project was delayed due to the security conditions in Iraq.
Should safety improve, Iranian official said Iran could start exporting natural gas to Iraq in May.
Initial pipeline capacity has been estimated at 4mn cubic metres of gas per day (mcm/d), which could rise to 35 mcm/d, according to the Oil Ministry.
e pipeline will take Iran’s gas from the country’s South gas field phases in Southern Iran to the power plant in Iraq.
