Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 18
By Fatih Karimov– Trend:
Iran has exported 1.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Iraq, since June, when Tehran started gas exports to the neighbouring country, Saeed Tavakkoli, head of Iran Gas Transmission Company, said.
Tehran exports 14 million cubic meters of gas to Iraq per day through existing network in Iran’s western Ilam and Kermanshah provinces for usage in power plants, Tavakkoli said, the oil ministry’s official news agaency reported Nov. 18.
He further said that Iran can increase the figure depending on itself domestic gas consumption.
Once the sixth cross country gas pipeline is completed Iran’s gas export capacity to Iraq will reach 25 million cubic meters per day, Tavakkoli added.
Iran started a much-awaited project to export natural gas to Iraq's capital Baghdad in June, following two years of negotiations between the two countries.
Iran and Iraq initially signed an agreement in 2013 based on which the Islamic Republic was to export natural gas to power stations around Baghdad via a 270-kilometer pipeline.
Iran has also signed a contract to export gas to southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Tavakkoli said that Iran will start gas export to Basra as soon as the Iraqi side expresses readiness.
Iran’s gas export capacity to Basra city will be 25 million cubic meters per day, same as the capacity for export to Baghdad city, he added.
Iraq now is the second gas customer of Iran after Turkey which imports 30 million cubic metres of natural gas per day.
With 33.5 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, Iran has the largest conventional gas reserves in the world.