Iran-Iraq gas pipeline ready to officially begin operation

Iran is ready to start the operation of a pipeline that will supply natural gas to Iraq. According to Majid Bujarzadeh, spokesman of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), the Iran-Iraq gas pipeline will be officially inaugurated this week.

Bujardazeh noted that Letters of Credit (LCs) are needed to be opened first before the supply process can be resumed although the pipeline is already filled with natural gas.

He reiterated that Iran is ready to inject gas into the export pipeline, and said that the Iraqi side is still unprepared to receive the supply.

The spokesman said that NIGC Managing Director Hamidreza Araqi will attend the unveiling ceremony. He also said the second part of the sixth national pipeline with a length of 600 kilometers is still under construction.

The sixth national gas pipeline network has the capacity to carry 110 million cubic meters per day through which natural gas would be exported to Iraq and Syria.

The NIGC and the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity and Power signed a gas contract in 2013 and it was in 2016 that an extension was added to the deal in order to increase its volume and duration.

Gas exports will begin at seven million cubic meters per day and is scheduled to reach the highest level envisaged in the contract after 21 months.

The deal for gas exports to Basra was also inked in 2015 as the second oil sale agreement to Iraq, according to which 35 and 25 million cubic meters of natural gas will be exported to the Iraqi region in cold and hot seasons, respectively.

With nearly three years after signing of the gas contract between Iran and Iraq, gas exports to the neighboring country has faced standstills and delays mainly due to activities of ISIL terrorist group’s activities, and also because of Iraq’s non-compliance to fulfillment of contractors’ financial claims.