Baku, Azerbaijan, March 23
By Emil Ilgar - Trend:
Iran has stretched a pipeline to its Naftshahr city on the border with Iraq, but natural gas delivery to Iraq will start in May or June, says Hamidreza Araqi, managing director of National Iranian Gas Company.
Iran will supply Iraq with seven million cubic meters of gas per day (mcm/d) in nine months, and after that period the volume will increase gradually and finally reach 25 mcm/d in two years, Araqi told Fars news agency March 23.
Iran is to complete the 6th cross-country pipeline, with 110 mcm/d of gas transiting capacity, linking South Pars gas field to Iraq's borders.
After the border, the pipeline will run in two routes. The first route is meant to transit 25 mcm/d of gas to Iraq's capital, Baghdad, and the second route is planned to deliver the same amount of gas to Basra.
It is estimated that Iran needs more than $2 billion to complete the pipeline.
For now, Iran is preparing to gradually make the Baghdad route operational. But the source of initial gas delivery in coming months is not the South Pars. Iran will use its 98-km pipeline from Charmalah settlement to Naftshahr for feeding the route. In the future this pipeline will be linked to the 6th cross-country pipeline.
Iran has two agreements with Iraq to export 50 mcm/d of gas to Baghdad and Basra.