Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 17
By Ali Mohammadi - Trend:
The Iranian energy minister said the Iraqi government has paid a portion of its dues to the Islamic Republic over natural gas imports.
“A portion of Iraq’s dues to Iran over gas imports has been cleared,” Reza Ardakani told ILNA news agency on Aug. 17.
The government has invited the Iraqi energy minister to visit Tehran as part of efforts to boost bilateral ties between the two neighboring nations, he added.
Issues like gas dues and exports will be also top on the agenda, the minister pointed out.
Iran is currently exporting gas to Iraq from Naftshahr region in Kermanshah Province, through a pipeline diverging from the Sixth Iran Gas Trunkline (IGAT-6).
IGAT-6 is a major component of the national gas grid which will have the capacity to transfer 110 million cubic meters of gas per day from South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf to southern and western regions.
The Iraqi government approved a deal in late 2017 to import gas from Iran to the eastern border province of Diyala, increasing purchases of the Iranian fuel, which started in June after several years of delays.
As per the deal, Iran committed itself to exporting gas to the Iraqi capital Baghdad and the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
About 12 mcm/d of gas per day are currently transferred to Baghdad, making Iraq the second largest gas customer of Iran after Turkey, which imported about 21 mcm/d in 2016, according to the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
Basra, Iraq's second largest city, also needs Iranian gas to feed its power plant as part of efforts to reduce outages that have turned into a persistent source of public discontent and the export will commence soon.