Azernews.Az

TEHRAN – Iran’s 7th cross-country gas pipeline was officially inaugurated on Monday, Iranian media reported.

The project, which cost $1.7 billion, is regarded as the first phase of the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline, which is also known as the Peace Pipeline.

The pipeline, which extends 902 kilometers from Assalouyeh in the southwest of Iran to Iranshahr in the southeast, will transfer natural gas from the South Pars gas field to some of Iran’s southern provinces.

The second section of the pipeline, which is to be about 400 kilometers in length, will be established by Iran’s Khatam-ol-Anbia Construction Headquarters at a cost of 200 to 250 million dollars.

Iran, Pakistan, and India conceptualized the Peace Pipeline project in the 1990s to promote peace and increase security in the region.

The IPI gas pipeline is a proposed 2,775-kilometer pipeline for delivering natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and India, though the signature of a final deal agreement has been delayed several times over price and political issues.

Due to tense India-Pakistan relations, New Delhi stepped back from the later stages of negotiations, although it has never formally withdrawn from the project.

Iran’s proven natural gas reserves stand at about 1,000 trillion cubic feet, of which 33 percent is located in associated gas fields and 67 percent in non-associated gas fields.

Iran has the world’s second largest reserves of natural gas after Russia.