Iran to gain $1.5-2 per day from gas exports to Iraq

An Iranian deputy oil minister says the country’s revenues from planned natural gas exports to the neighboring Iraq will reach USD1.5-2 million a day.

Javad Owji said on Tuesday that Iran will start delivering gas to its western neighbor in three months.

“In the beginning, nearly five million cubic meters (mcm) per day of gas will be exported to this country,” said Owji, who is also managing director of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC).

The official stated that Iran will get USD18 billion from natural gas exports if its planned sale of 20-30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year is realized.

“If we sell gas throughout a full year, all investments made in the gas sector will return,” Owji added.

Iran has basically agreed to pump 25 mcm per day of natural gas to Iraq.

On January 30, Iranian Oil Ministry spokesman Alireza Nikzad-Rahbar said the country would start exporting natural gas to Iraq by next summer.

Nikzad-Rahbar added that the Friendship Pipeline project under construction between Iran, Iraq and Syria, is the most important project currently pursued by the ministry.

The pipeline will be designed in such a way that it will be able to deliver gas to other Muslim countries like Jordan and Lebanon in the future.

The 56-inch pipeline will start from Assaluyeh, near the massive offshore South Pars Gas Field in southern Iran, and will continue into Iraq to feed three Iraqi power plants running on gas.

Iran, which sits on the world’s second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, is making efforts to raise its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in South Pars gas field.