IANS/RIA Novosti | 10 Jan, 2013
Tehran is planning to build a gas pipeline up to Iraq and
Syria, the Iranian Oil Ministry said Wednesday.
"A 56-inch pipeline is to be laid from Assaluyeh (near the South Pars gas
field in southern Iran) to the Iran-Iraq border to feed three Iraqi power
plants running on gas," Press TV reported ministry's spokesperson as
saying.
A tripartite meeting will soon be held in Baghdad between Iran, Syria and Iraq
to develop a plan for extending the pipeline from Iraq to Syria, he added.
Iraq has requested 30 million cubic metres of natural gas per day from Iran in
the first phase, which is scheduled to come on-stream by next summer, Nikzad
Rahbar said.
Syria has requested 25-30 million cubic metres per day. But the route for the
pipeline from Baghdad to the Syrian border is yet to be surveyed, he added.
Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said in July that his country, which has the
world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, should start
exporting gas to Iraq by March 2013.