Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 18
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
An Iranian official says the Islamic Republic and Azerbaijan have been talking on transiting gas to Europe.
Azerbaijani and Iranian officials have in recent weeks discussed in Tehran ways to export Iran's gas to Europe via Azerbaijan, the Fars news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying Aug. 18.
Recently, on Aug. 4, an Azerbaijani delegation headed by Economy and Industry Minister Shahin Mustafayev traveled to Iran and met with Iranian top officials, including Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.
"Azerbaijani delegation offered their Iranian counterparts to cooperate in the gas export to Europe via Azerbaijan, as Iran's involvement will leave no concern in terms of providing Europe with gas," the source said.
According to the report, the two parties stressed that the Iranian gas export to Europe through Azerbaijan is easier than its direct export to the West.
The head of Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev said in April that Iran is interested in purchasing a stake in the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP).
He said SOCAR stands ready to consider the offers for the sale of a part of its share in TANAP.
During Mustafayev's visit on Aug. 4, Azerbaijan offered Iran to use its infrastructure for exports of oil and gas to world markets.
Mustafayev said that Iran could in the future join TANAP.
Azerbaijan also invited Iran to use its gas storage facilities to keep gas and use it during the period when consumption grows.
Iran was also offered to cooperate in oil and gas engineering, and joint production of oil and gas equipment.
Iran plans to increase the raw gas output from the current 700 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) to 1,100 mcm/d in 2018.
With its 34 trillion cubic meters of conventional gas reserves, Iran ranks first in the world.