Azerbaijan, Baku, Sep.26/ Trend F.Milad/
Iran will have the capacity to boost gas exports to Turkey and other European countries once the 6th cross country gas pipeline come on stream, the National Iranian Gas Company's managing director said.
The pipeline, which is projected to extend 1,300 kilometers, will increase the capacity to transfer natural gas to Turkey to 80 million cubic meters (bcm) per day from around 30 bcm, the Mehr news agency quoted the NIGC director Javad Owji as saying on Wednesday.
Last week, Deputy Oil Minister Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr said Iran is currently holding negotiations for deals to transit natural gas to Europe.
Iran can be the most reliable source of natural gas for Europe in the long term, he added.
"Iran is currently exporting gas to Turkey. The country has signed gas-swap deals with Armenia and Azerbaijan. Negotiations are also underway to ink gas export deals with Switzerland, Iraq, Pakistan, and Syria," the IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
On September 9, National Iranian Gas Company Managing Director Javad Owji said Iran and Turkey agreed to transfer natural gas from Turkmenistan to Europe.
On September 4, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi and Turkish Development Minister Cevdet Yilmaz held talks in Tehran on increasing exports of Iranian gas to Turkey.
Yılmaz said an Iranian delegation will travel to Turkey for further negotiations with Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz.
The third section of the 6th cross country gas pipeline of Iran, which is aimed to export natural gas to Europe via Turkey, is around 48 percent complete, Alireza Gharibi, the managing director of Iran's Gas Engineering and Development Company, said.
Once the pipeline comes on stream, it will have the capacity to transfer 100 million cubic meters of gas per day.
Daily gas production in Iran is about 600 million cubic meters, and this is projected to increase to 1.2 billion cubic meters in the future. According to the National Iranian Gas Company, the country's oil and natural gas reserves account for 10 percent and 16 percent of total world reserves, respectively.
Iran, with 155 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves, ranks fourth worldwide, after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.
With 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, Iran has the world's second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia.