Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.16
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran is currently negotiating to export natural gas to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Ali Majedi, Iran's deputy oil minister for international affairs and trade, said "Of course the volume of gas requested by them is not as much as the volume of gas which is currently exported to Iraq and Turkey."
They use natural gas mainly for the water desalination purpose, Iran's IRNA news agency quoted Majedi as saying on August 16.
Kuwait has also expressed interest in importing gas from Iran, he added.
In 1996, Iran and Turkey signed an agreement, according to which Iran would supply 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually to Turkey.
Under the agreement, Iran should export about 27.3 million cubic meters of gas per day to its northwestern neighbor.
Moreover, Iran has agreed to export 25 million cubic meters (mcm) a day of gas to Iraq.
The contract for Iran's gas exports to Iraq had been struck for four years, but under an agreement recently reached between the two country's energy ministers, the duration extended to 10 years.
Iran plans to diversify its gas costumers. Besides exporting gas to neighboring countries, Tehran also eyes to transfer gas to Europe. The country plans to export gas to Europe via pipeline or in the form of LNG (liquid gas).