Official: Jordan, Lebanon Can Import Iran's Gas Soon
News number: 9107134483 18:42 | 2013-01-09
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107134483

TEHRAN (FNA)- The construction of Iran's 270-kilometer gas pipeline to Iraq
has started and is making rapid progress, an Iranian energy official said,
adding that upon completion of the pipeline Iraq's neighboring countries,
including Jordan and Lebanon, will likely supply their gas needs through the
pipeline as well.

"Jordan and Lebanon can also utilize this pipeline and supply their needed
gas," Iranian Oil Ministry Spokesman Alireza Nikzad Rahbar said at a press
conference in Tehran on Wednesday.

He noted that the project for transfer of Iran's gas to Iraq is forcefully
advancing.

Last month, Head of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Javad Oji
announced that Iranian contractors have been commissioned to begin
construction of Iran-Iraq gas pipeline in 2013.

The 42-inch pipeline is slated to export Iran's gas to Iraq's al-Mansoureh
power plant and Baghdad via Ilam border in Western Iran.

The pipeline will take Iran's gas from the country's South gas field phases
in Southern Iran to the power plant in Iraq.

Iran is currently producing 300 million cubic meters per day of gas from
South Pars.

Earlier in November, an Iranian deputy oil minister said a sum of 80 billion
dollars will be invested in the development and completion of South Pars gas
field phases.

The South Pars gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700
square kilometers of which are in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian
Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, i.e. the North Dome, are in
Qatar's territorial waters.

The South Pars gas field holds 8 percent of total gas reserves of the world
and half of the country's proven gas reserves as well as is the host of the
most important industrial complexes of the country and the most important
part of oil industry's value chain.

Last month, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi declared that his ministry
will soon strike gas deals with different countries, and added that Iran's
gas output will increase to 1.4bln cubic meters per day (cmpd) in the near
future.