Iran's supplies to Iraq pushed gas exports up 64%

Iran's natural gas export has seen a huge rise over a period of five months starting 21 March 2017 a result of rising supplies to its western neighbor Iraq.

Behzad Babazadeh, the director for international affairs of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), said that the country had exported as much as 50 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of gas over the first five months after the start of the new Iranian calendar year. 

The figure, Babazadeh said, marked an increase of 64 percent compared to the similar period last year. 

He added that the rise in gas export came as supplies to Iraq increased from 7 mcm/d to 14 mcm/d. 

The Iranian official said export to Iraq had seen an increase of 100 percent from what the Islamic Republic had pledged to supply based on a contract signed between the two countries in 2013.

Babazadeh said the doubling of the supplies to Iran’s western neighbor had been implemented upon a request by Iraq that had wanted a rise in gas imports during summer, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported.

The official said Iran would be committed to providing as high as 40 mcm/d of natural gas to Iraq upon the full implementation the 2013 agreement. That, he said, would then make Iraq the biggest client of Iran's natural gas export. Presently, Iran’s biggest gas client is Turkey which is importing 30 mcm/d from its eastern neighbor. 

EA