Iran in Talks for 5 LNG Projects

Iran is negotiating to launch five LNG projects within the next three years, a move that aims to increase its share of the global market.

Managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Hamid-Reza Araqi said that negotiations for exporting gas to five neighbouring countries are underway, Shana news agency reported on November 24.

“Currently, Iran exports gas to Turkey, barters with Armenian gas, and swaps with Azerbaijan, and exports to Iraq will start in the near future,” Shana quotes him as saying.

He added that Iran’s gas production capacity will reach 330 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year by 2017. Consequently, it will be possible to increase the volume of gas exports, he noted.

Two of the four defined gas storage projects have come on stream, he said.

This week, head of the National Iranian Oil Company Rokneddin Javadi also said he sees Iran joining the elite club of LNG exporters in the next two years.

The first Iranian LNG unit has yet to come on stream. The project is being implemented and is currently 60% physically completed. The project will be completed pending the removal of sanctions to import necessary equipment and structures.

This plant’s capacity is projected to be 10.5 million tons per year and it is estimate it will earn the country more than $7 billion annually.

In August this year, Iran's deputy oil minister for international affairs, Amir Hossein Zamaninia, said that developing gas exports to neighbouring countries is Iran's foremost priority, as it helps deepen Iran's relations with those countries.