Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 31
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran sees different grounds for exporting natural gas to Europe, the director of international affairs at National Iranian Gas Company Azizollah Ramazani said.
Iran will not confine itself to establishing pipeline for exporting gas to Europe via Turkey, the official said, IRNA news agency reported on October 31.
"We have predicted that the country's gas export capacity will be 150-300 million cubic meters by the end of the sixth five-year development plan (2021)."
"We have not held talks with European companies," he said, adding that in addition to selling gas in the form of LNG, exporting through pipelines is also on the agenda.
There are different routes for exporting gas to Europe. One of them is Turkey.
Iran is studying possible ways to export gas to Europe, including Nabucco (Nabucco west) and Trans-Anatolian pipeline projects (TANAP), Ramazani said in August.
Iran is studying economical and operational conditions for choosing the most economic and the most secure way to export gas to Europe, he added.
"Based on results of the studies, the best choice will be selected", he said, adding that gas exports to Europe is one of the long-term policies of the Iranian gas industry.
However, the first priority is to export gas to the neighboring countries, especially to the Persian Gulf nations, he noted.
Iran has the long-term potential to become one of the world's top gas producers, thanks to its 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, or around 18 percent of the world's total.
Iran's current raw gas output stands at 660 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d), but it is planned to increase the figure to 1,100 mcm/d by 2019.