Gas transit from Caspian Sea to Persian Gulf not economically justified

Transit of gas from Caspian Sea to Persian Gulf countries is not currently economically justified, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said.

Referring to the latest situation of swapping or transiting gas from Turkmenistan to Oman via Iran, he said that most of talks with Turkmenistan were related to the swap of natural gas, Mehr news agency reported on November 21.

Based on negotiations with Oman, it was agreed to export Iranian gas to the neighboring Arab state, he noted.

Prior to that, it had been planned that Iranian gas to be exported to Oman via Qatar, he said, adding that with the probability of lifting sanctions, exporting gas directly to Oman was put on the agenda.

Zanganeh said on November 17 that Iran will be negotiating natural gas swap projects with Russia, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan.

“We are exporting gas nearly as much as we are importing," he said. "Of course, we need to import in the long run. But, we want to have mutual import and export with countries, like Turkmenistan in order to buy from us goods in return for importing gas.

“Our priority is to export gas to the neighboring countries. We are willing to export gas to Iraqi Kurdistan,” he added.