Iran, Iraq to Ink Gas Deal

Tehran and Baghdad are set to finalize a deal on gas exports from Iran to Iraq in the near future, Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oaji said.

Gas exports are likely to start next year. “Once the aforementioned contract between the two countries is finalized, Iran will export 20 to 25 million cubic meters of gas per day to Iraq in the scheduled time frame,” Press TV reported Oaji as saying. 

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said in July that the Islamic Republic is expected to start exporting natural gas to Iraq by March 2013 upon the completion of the Iran-Iraq gas pipeline project.

Iran’s South Pars, which is part of a larger gas field shared with Qatar, is divided into 24 phases and holds about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight percent of the total world reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.