Azerbaijan, Baku, July.8/ Trend R.Zamanov
Tehran and Baghdad have agreed to increase Iran's electricity exports to the neighbouring country by 150 megawatt hours.
Iran currently exports 1300 megawatt hours of electricity to Iraq, the Mehr News Agency reported.
Iranian Vice President for International Affairs Ali Saeedlou said the country also plans to export electricity to Syria and Lebanon via Iraq in the near future.
Saeedlou added that Tehran plans to increase gas exports to Iraq and Baghdad has recently signed a new gas contract.
"The two countries' plan to increase their bilateral trade to 16 billion dollars per year," he said, adding that the two country's bilateral trade stood at 12 billion dollars in the previous calendar year.
Based on the previously signed contract, Iran will start exporting 25 million cubic meters of gas per day to Iraq by the end of summer.
Iraq will use the gas to feed its power plants.
Deputy Energy Minister Mohammad Behzad said in June that Iran has constructed twice as many power plants as the average number in the world during the past decade, the Mehr News Agency reported.
The power generation capacity in Iran has grown by seven per cent annually during the past 10 years he said, adding that the figure has averaged 3.5 per cent in the world.
The country's power generation capacity is currently at 68.38 gig watts, he added.
Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.
Iran seeks to become a major regional exporter of electricity and has attracted more than $1.1 billion in investments for the construction of three new power plants.