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Iranian Oil Minister said the fighting between Iraqi troops and IS militants will delay even further the planned start of Iranian natural gas exports to neighboring Iraq, ABC News have reported.Â
Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said the construction of the pipeline on the Iraqi side is being disrupted by fighting on some of the territory it goes through now controlled by the IS group.
Iranian pipeline workers have come under attack several times, which has disrupted work in Iraq’s Diyala province, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said.Â
“The upheaval in Iraq is postponing the exports,” Zanganeh said without making it clear when the pipeline may be finished or when it could go online.
Iranian oil official Nasser Sajjadi said that Iran exported more than 100mn litres  of diesel by trucks to Iraq’s power plants between August last year and 2014.
He said the two countries are discussing a draft agreement, under which diesel exports will reach 900mn litres in future.
Under a 2012 agreement, Iran gas exports to Iraq could start in 2014 through the new pipeline. Meanwhile, there have been talks for a second pipeline to the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
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