Iran started construction of a gas pipeline which is due to take the country's rich gas reserves to Iraq and Syria, a provincial official announced, Fars news agency reported.
The announcement was made by Gilan-e Gharb Governor Ardeshir Rostami during an executive coordination meeting of the officials of relevant bodies.
Rostami described the project as important for Iran politically and socio-economically, and said the project has already started from Kuhdasht and reached Gilan-e Gharb to pass the border to Iraqi capital Baghdad.
He said the length of the gas pipeline will be 225 kilometers and it will be completed by June 2013 with an investment of three billion dollars.
The oil ministers of Iraq, Iran and Syria had signed a preliminary agreement for a $10 billion natural-gas-pipeline deal on July 25, 2011, in Assalouyeh industrial region located in the Southern province of Bushehr.
Iranian oil officials then said Syria would purchase between 20 million to 25 million cubic meters a day of Iranian gas while Iraq had also already signed a deal with Tehran to purchase up to 25 million cubic meters a day to feed its power stations.
The main project, 1,500 km length of piping Assalouyeh gas to Damascus requires $10 billion investment.
The pipeline will transfer a capacity of 110 million cubic meters of natural gas a day to Damascus.
The gas will be produced from the Iranian South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, which Iran shares with Qatar, and holds estimated reserves of 16 trillion cubic meters of recoverable gas.
Iranian officials have said that Tehran also aims to extend the pipeline to Lebanon and the Mediterranean to supply gas to Europe.