Iran urges implementing natural gas transfer project to Oman

Iranian Majlis (parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani called for the implementation of Iran's natural gas transfer project to Oman, official IRNA news agency reported Sunday. Larijani made the remarks during a meeting with his visiting Omani counterpart al-Shura Khalid bin Hilal bin Nasir al-Mawaly here on Saturday. According to an earlier agreement between Iran and Oman, Tehran was to provide natural gas to an Omani liquefied natural gas (LNG) factory in order to convert it into LNG and sell it to customers. Also, the National Iranian Gas Export Company said in September 2011 that India and Oman were considering to import natural gas from Iran via an under-sea pipeline. If an under-sea gas pipeline was built by India to Oman, Iran could build a similar pipeline in deep waters to join that pipeline for export of gas to New Delhi, the caretaker of the National Iranian Gas Export Company, Hossein Bidarmaghz, said at that time. Despite a number of negotiations over the projects between the parties involved, Iran's natural gas transfer have not become operational so far. On Saturday, Iran's Majlis speaker hailed the visit of Oman's parliamentary delegation, saying it would accelerate the expansion of parliamentary cooperation and would open a new chapter in this regard. For his part, the Omani speaker said his country ascribes great importance to political and economic cooperation with Iran.