Oaji, who is also the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), said on Tuesday that Iran would begin exporting natural gas to Iraq in 2013.
“Once the aforementioned contract between the two countries is finalized, Iran will export 20 to 25 million cubic meters of gas per day to Iraq in the scheduled time frame,” he noted.
Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said in July that the Islamic Republic is expected to start exporting natural gas to Iraq by March 2013 upon the completion of the Iran-Iraq gas pipeline project.
Iran’s South Pars, which is part of a larger gas field shared with Qatar, is divided into 24 phases and holds about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight percent of the total world reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.
Iran, which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, is making efforts to up its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in South Pars gas field.
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