Iran Pipeline to Pump 5mcm/d Gas to Basra, Iraq

The 25-kilometer pipeline which is agreed to carry Iran’s gas from Khorramshahr to Iraq’s Basra is scheduled to pump 5 million cubic meters of gas daily to the neighboring port city in its first phase upon signing of the contract.

“We are ready to put the project into operation as soon as the contract is signed,” Managing Director of the Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company (NIGSENG) Hassan Montazer Torbati told Shana.

On the transfer of gas to the capital city of Baghdad, the official also said that testing the pipeline is in the final stages and it is expected to be launched in the near future.

Iran and Iraq have finalized the development plan for construction of the gas pipeline to carry gas to the neighboring Arab country, and its contract is in final stage of being drafted, international relations director at the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Azizollah Ramezani, said last week.

Iran is ready to supply Iraq with up to 35 million cubic meters of gas on a daily basis given a new amendment to the gas export contract, mainly for generation of electricity during 5 hot months of the year.

Iran completed its share of the 97-km pipeline in late August.

Alireza Gharibi, managing director of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company, earlier in July that the final tests as well as cleaning and calibration pigging on the pipeline were completed and the pipeline was ready to export Iranian natural gas on August 20.

The pipeline, 48 inches in diameter, is also linked to Iran’s gas trunklines (IGATs) to deliver natural gas from Iran to Iraq.

In its first phase, the pipeline will carry 5mcm/d of natural gas from Iran to Iraq, and the amount will rise once the line is linked to IGATs.

The 270-kilometer pipeline stretches from the village of Charmaleh, located in Iran’s western province of Kermanshah, into the town of Naft Shahr on the border with Iraq.

The pipeline, which is estimated to earn Iran 3.7 billion dollars a year in revenues, will be fed by the massive offshore South Pars gas field in southern Iran.

The South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, is estimated to contain 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of condensate.

Iraq needs Iranian gas for power generation to solve a part of its load-shedding problem which is causing unrests in parts of the country during hot summer days.

Besides the envisaged gas supply, Iran will also provide Iraq with training programs for its technical, financial and executive manpower.