Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 1
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran will hold a tender, worth $1.5 billion, for building the second gas pipeline to Iraq.
The managing director of Iran's Gas Engineering and Development Company, Alireza Gharibi, said the gas pipeline and related side facilities will be established by the private sector as a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) project, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on Feb. 1.
"In addition to the pipeline, five gas pressure boost stations and a measurement station will be also established," he said.
Once the pipeline is implemented, Iran's gas export capacity to Iraq will rise in two years.
The construction of the first pipeline which goes to Baghdad is almost complete and is to start carrying gas to the country by May 2015.
The project is programmed to export about 4 million cubic meters of gas to Baghdad on a daily basis. The figure will gradually rise to 25 million cubic meters a day.
According to Director of International Relations of National Iranian Gas Company, Azizollah Ramezani, about 7 kilometers of the pipeline which runs to Baghdad is still under construction inside the Iraqi soil.
The second pipeline carrying Iranian gas to Iraq via Basra will have a capacity of 35 million cubic meters per day.
The two pipelines together have a capacity to increase Iran's gas exports to Iraq to 70 million cubic meters a day.