Tehran will start delivering natural gas to Turkey as of July 30, in line with an August 1996 agreement, Iranian deputy oil minister Hamdollah Mohammad-Nejad said Sunday, July 22.
"We have finished the construction works and everything is ready for a July 30 launch", said Mohammad-Nejad, who is also the head of the National Iranian gas company. The press quoted him explaining that the construction had been completed of a gas pipeline between the western Iranian city of Tabriz and the Turkish border, as well as four pumping stations.
In 1996, Iran and Turkey signed a $20 billion agreement over 22 years to supply Ankara with 4 billion cubic meters (140 billion cubic feet) of gas per year. The original contract had set the launch for 1999, but it was delayed for technical reasons.
According to the agreement between the two countries, the volume of supply could later reach 10 billion cubic meters (350 billion cubic feet).
The Iran/Libya Sanctions Act passed by the US Congress in 1986 calls for sanctions against companies that invest more than 20 million dollars in the Iranian oil industry.
Iran has the world's second largest natural gas reserves with an estimated 20,000 billion cubic meters (700,000 billion cubic feet). — (AFP)
© Agence France Presse
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
