A pipeline delivering natural gas from Iran to Turkey was officially inaugurated this week. The project is hoped to provide Iran with the possibility of exporting its gas to European markets, using Turkey as a transit link.
Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar-Zangeneh is scheduled to arrive in Athens in February to discuss Iranian gas exports to Greece via Turkey, an Iranian government official confirmed to AFP. Turkey may need to build another 100-kilometer underwater pipeline for this purpose.
Turkey signed the $20-billion contract with Iran back in 1996, providing for gas deliveries over a 25-year period. The contract’s implementation was however repeatedly postponed due to construction delays and administrative hurdles put forward by both sides. In the pipeline’s initial phase of operation, four billion cubic meters of natural gas annually will be flowing from Iran to Turkey, rising up to 10 billion cubic meters per annum by the year 2007.
Turkey is also cooperating with Russia over the construction of the Blue Stream pipeline across the Black Sea, expected to become operational by mid-year 2002. Iran’s gas reserves are estimated at 26,000 billion cubic meters, the second largest proven reserves in the world, after Russia. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
