TEHRAN (Iran News) – The CEO of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company says talks have begun for construction of gas pipeline for Oman and it is in the early stages and technical and executive stage.
Speaking to ILNA, Reza Noshadi said that countries decide to carry out the TAPI gas pipeline with cooperation of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India with spending billions of dollars but not ready to trade with Iran while Iran can take gas from Turkmenistan and transfer it to Azerbaijan but again they are ready to implement Trans-Caspian project in the depth of Caspian Sea water but not to cooperate with Iran.
He went on to say that the basic engineering studies of the project for construction of gas pipeline for exporting gas to Oman have already been conducted and now both sides are in the stage of beginning technical and executive talks but even Oman is affected by the political equations and if it is resolved, both sides have announced readiness for talks and workgroup can be formed and the project to be implemented.
Noshadi went on to say that the country has put on agenda developing and construction of new gas pipeline for increasing gas exports to Iraq.
On the cooperation of Iran with Iraq on exploiting joint gas fields and export to Europe, he admitted that its materialization is difficult, and first he needs to elaborate why war in Syria broke out, saying because Iran had decided to launch an Islamic gas pipeline and the gas from Iran, Iraq and Syria could reach Europe but the rivals of this line was the Qatar-Saudi Arabia-Iraq-Turkey-Europe line and the West made Syria and Iraq unsafe in order that Iran cannot implement its project for exporting gas to Europe. Therefore Iran’s gas can only be used in Iraq and in other countries the networks for receiving Iran’s gas were not created, he stated. He reiterated that the sabotage in Syria and Iraq for making them unsafe has actually sidelined the issue of Iran’s gas to Europe.
Noshadi added that Qatar unlikely would welcome the idea of joint cooperation for creating gas pipeline to Europe because major part of oil and gas contract partners of Qatar are Western and they will not welcome this idea.
He went on to say that Iran currently has electricity and gas exchanges with its neighboring countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nakhchivan and Turkmenistan, and the country has reached a maturation in the field of gas and with considering the current markets it does not need construction of new lines while the country is currently busy with constructing the ninth line for 400 kilometers and it is in the tender holding stage and it will be used for exporting gas to Iraq.
On Cooperation with Kurdistan of Iraq for exporting gas, he said that there is no problem in this regard but before anything else, first the political equations should be resolved between Iran and Kurdistan of Iraq because Iran has enough technology for developing gas and exporting gas to Kurdistan.
