Azerbaijan, Baku, Mar.12/ Trend F.Milad
The managing director of National Iranian Gas Company said the country will double its gas exports in the next Iranian calendar year which begins March 20.
Iran's gas exports currently stands at 35 million cubic meters per day, Javad Owji said in a radio interview, the IRIB News Agency reported.
Iran exported 30 million cubic meters of gas daily to Turkey he said, noting that by completion of the sixth nationwide gas pipeline the amount could be raised up to 80 million cubic meters per day.
Iran will export 40 million cubic meters of gas per day to Iraq next year, Owji added.
It is while the Iranian oil minister said on Monday that Iran plans to export 50 million cubic meters of gas to Iraq.
Rostam Qasemi who has just returned from a trip to Baghdad went on to note that Iran will start exporting gas to Iraq by the end of the Iranian month of Khordad (June 20).
During his visit to Baghdad, Qasemi held talks with Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Karim Luaibi.
A joint group consisting of Iranian and Iraqi experts will determine the final path for the Iran-Iraq gas pipeline. Iran will transfer the gas to the border via the sixth nationwide gas pipeline. Iraq will use the gas to produce electricity in two power plants.
Tehran, Baghdad and Damascus have reached an initial agreement over a trilateral gas contract. The three countries will negotiate the details in Tehran in the near future, he said.
Iran currently produces 550-600 million cubic meters of gas per day and plans to export gas to Syria through Iraq.
The Iranian oil minister announced last month that Iran plans to sign some new gas export contracts in near future.
By the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (March 2016), Iran's gas production capacity would reach one billion cubic meters per day, Rostam Qasemi said.