Azerbaijan, Baku, April 18/Trend M. Moezzi
Iran is in talks to export gas to one European and two Persian Gulf countries the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) reports a deputy energy minister as saying.
After exporting a record 8.2 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas last year (Iran's solar year ended on March 19) demand continues to increase for the country's gas. In addition to its on-going negotiations with three potentially new customers, Iran is going to start exporting 25 mcm of gas to Iraq. The export ceiling currently being finalised is on a five-year contract which can be twice renewed. Meanwhile Pakistan has asked to increase its gas purchase from 23.5 mcm a day to 30 mcm, said deputy energy minister Javad Owji.
The National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) is producing 640 mcm of sweet and sour gas of which 540 mcm of that is processed.
In other comments Mr. Owji rejected claims by Iran's petrochemical industry that NIGC's charges too much for the gas its sells them. The injection gas the NIGC sells to petrochemical manufacturers is one of the cheapest in the world said the deputy minister who compared Iran's price of five cents (USD) a cubic meter with Turkey's 54 cents a cubic meter.