On the possibility of building new natural gas transport pipelines from Iran to Europe during the post-sanctions era, Rokneddin Javadi said “currently, natural gas transmission through pipelines for a distance over 2500 km is not technically or economically profitable."
Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) asserted that Iran must build 4,000 kilometers of pipelines in order to transfer natural gas to Europe adding “construction of 4000 kilometers of pipelines is not economical for Iran.”
Deputy oil minister further deemed Iran’s most important scenario of delivering gas to Europe as launching the new LNG production units; “economic calculations show that the production of LNG is more economical due to current market conditions.”
Emphasizing that the setting up of LNG production in the country is affected by technology and investment, Javadi noted “accordingly, we have begun negotiations with countries possessing technology of gas liquefaction and production of LNG units .”
“It is estimated that Iran will join the group of countries which produce and export gas within two years,” the official stated.
Over the past few months, Iran has reached preliminary agreement with three major European countries over transportation, transit and storage of natural gas and has so far conducted negotiations with Poland and Austria on LNG storage as well as with Spain on exporting LNG to Spanish gas terminals.
To achieve part of the European Union market during the post-sanctions era, Iran is planning to export LNG instead of building gas pipelines; this is in order to avoid competition with Russia and to decrease its dependency on Turkey in exporting gas via pipelines .
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