Iran boosting infrastructure to increase gas exports to Europe
Iran will have the capacity to boost its gas exports to Turkey and other European countries once thecross-country gas pipeline comes on stream, the National Iranian Gas Company's managing director said.
The pipeline, which is projected to extend 1,300 kilometers, will increase the capacity to transport natural gas to Turkey to 80 million cubic meters (bcm) per day from around 30 bcm, the NIGC director, Javad Owji, was quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying on Wednesday.
Last week, Deputy Oil Minister Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr said Iran was holding negotiations for deals to transit natural gas to Europe.
Iran can be the most reliable source of natural gas for Europe in the long term, he added.
"Iran is currently exporting gas to Turkey. The country has signed gas-swap deals with Armenia and Azerbaijan. Negotiations are also underway to ink gas export deals with Switzerland, Iraq, Pakistan, and Syria," the IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
On September 9, Javad Owji said Iran and Turkey agreed to transport natural gas from Turkmenistan to Europe.
On September 4, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi and Turkish
Development Minister Cevdet Yilmaz held talks in Tehran on
increasing exports of Iranian gas to Turkey.
Yılmaz said an Iranian delegation will travel to Turkey for further
talks with Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz.
The third section of the 6th cross-country gas pipeline of Iran, which is aimed to export natural gas to Europe via Turkey, is around 48 percent complete, Alireza Gharibi, the managing director of Iran's Gas Engineering and Development Company, said.
Once the pipeline comes on stream, it will have the capacity to transport 100 million cubic meters of gas per day.
Daily gas production in Iran is about 600 million cubic meters, and it is projected to increase to 1.2 billion cubic meters in the future.
According to the NIGC, the country's oil and gas reserves
account for 10 percent and 16 percent of the total world reserves,
respectively.
Iran, with 155 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves, ranks
fourth worldwide, after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.
With 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, Iran has the world's second-largest gas reserves after Russia.
Here we are to serve you with news right now. It does not cost much, but worth your attention.
Choose to support open, independent, quality journalism and subscribe on a monthly basis.
By subscribing to our online newspaper, you can have full digital access to all news, analysis, and much more.
You can also follow AzerNEWS on Twitter @AzerNewsAz or Facebook @AzerNewsNewspaper
Thank you!