Iran, Iraq to sign gas deal

The National Iranian Gas Exporting Company announced that the first contract to export Iran's natural gas to Iraq will be signed within the next two months, the local satellite Press TV reported Monday. The caretaker of the National Iranian Gas Exporting Company, Hossein Bidarmaghz, said Sunday that according to the initial contract, Iran's gas will be supplied through the western Iranian city of Ilam bordering Iraq to feed three Iraqi power plants. The final agreement will be inked within two months, said the report. Bidarmaghz said based on the agreement, the Islamic Republic would export 25 million cubic meters of natural gas per day to Iraq. The Iraqi ministry of electricity has signed a contract with an Iranian company for the construction of the required gas pipeline in its territory, he added. In July, Iran, Iraq and Syria signed a major gas deal to transfer the country's natural gas from South Pars gas field to Europe. The agreement, "Islamic Gas Pipeline" contract, was signed between Iran's caretaker oil minister Mohammad Aliabadi, Oil Minister of Iraq Abdul Kareem Luaiby and Syrian Oil Minister Sufian Alao at the Asalouyeh energy zone in Iran's southern Bushehr province. The 5,600 km pipeline will pump Iran's South Pars oil and gas field through Iran, Iraq and Syria to Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea before reaching Europe.