On latest construction status of Iran-Iraq gas export pipeline, Planning Director of the National Iranian Gas Company Hassan Montazer Torbati said phase one of the project has been accomplished and will be officially inaugurated in the week to come.
“Phase one of the pipeline comprises parts of 6th cross-country pipeline as well as the ones in Kermanshah province,” noted the official asserting “in addition to construction of the pipeline, a gas measurement terminal has been also build at the border with Iraq where Iranian gas has been already transferred to.”
He stressed that no barriers existed on the part of Iran for exports of natural gas to the neighboring country estimating that phase two of the pipeline will become operational in time with launch of gas exports to Iraq.
Montazer Torbati noted that construction of the second gas export pipeline to south Iraq had begun within a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract.
He recalled that gas exports to Iraq via the new pipeline will be made possible in mid-March emphasizing that the second pipeline initiates from Khoramshahr and phase one of the project will provide possibility to transfer five million cubic meters of gas to southern Iraqi region of Basra.
The official noted that upon full operation, the pipeline will have the capacity to transfer 25 to 30 million cubic meters of gas to south Iraq; “gas measurement units will be also built parallel with pipeline construction which will come on stream by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (to end March 20).”
On the timetable for resumption of gas exports to Iraq, Zamaninia explained that both sides were ready for the process though Letters of Credit (LCs) first needed to be opened for exports to start over.
He noted that banking issues had to be fully resolved before Iranian gas could be deployed to Iraq stressing that “a letter of credit is a letter from a bank guaranteeing that a buyer's payment to a seller will be received on time and for the correct amount.”
National Iranian Gas Company and the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity and Power signed a gas contract in 2013 and it was in 2016 that an extension was added to the deal in order to increase its volume and duration.
Accordingly, gas exports will begin at seven million cubic meters per day and is scheduled to reach the highest level envisaged in the contract after 21 months. As such, in hot seasons 35 and in cold ones 25 million cubic meters of natural gas will be deployed to Baghdad region yielding an aggregate total of 10 billion cubic meters per year.
The deal for gas exports to Basra was also inked in 2015 as the second oil sale agreement to Iraq according to which 35 and 25 million cubic meters of natural gas will be exported to the Iraqi region in hot and cold seasons, respectively.
With nearly three years after signing of the gas contract between Iran and Iraq, gas exports to the neighboring country has faced standstills and delays mainly due to activities of ISIL terrorist group activities and also because of Iraq’s non-compliance to fulfillment of contractors’ financial claims.
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