Iran: Europe not on agenda of gas exports

The Islamic of Iran has removed an old plan to export natural gas to Europe and is instead focusing on exports to its neighbors as well as India.

According to Press TV, Amirhossein Zamaninia, Iran’s deputy minister of petroleum for trade and international affairs, said Europe’s gas market was already saturated with excessive supplies and had thus lost its priority in Iran’s gas export plans. 

“Iran’s key priority should be exports to the neighboring states as well as India,” Zamaninia told Iran’s IRNA news agency. 

He further emphasized that the landmark nuclear agreement that Iran had sealed with the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany in 2015 and the subsequent removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic had already provided an appropriate opportunity to pursue plans to export natural gas to the neighboring states. 

Over the past few years, Iran had been pursuing exporting natural gas to Kuwait, Oman and Iraq.

In late June, the country started exporting gas to Iraq by virtue an agreement that was signed in 2013.

Talks over exports to Kuwait and Oman have been presently stalled over technical issues.

An ambitious project to pipe gas to India through Pakistan - that had been in the offing for almost two decades but delayed for disputes over pricing and the related technicalities - has also been recently revived. 

Iran is further exporting about 30 million cubic meters of gas to Turkey which before Iraq was its only export destination since 2001.  

SS