Iran and Iraq will sign a deal by the next 30 days to finalize the export of Iranian gas to its neighbor, the National Iranian Gas Company’s (NIGC) managing director Javad Oji announced in Tehran on Saturday. 

Some 170 kilometers of the pipeline, which will transfer gas from Iran to Iraq, will be built in Iran and it will extend 190 kilometers into Iraq, the NIGC head stated.

 

 The official added that the deal is aimed to supply four power plants in Iraq with natural gas. Meanwhile, negotiations for finalizing the construction of the planned Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline, dubbed the Islamic Pipeline will go on, he added.

According to the deal, some 20 million cubic meters of natural gas would be exported to Iraq per day in the first phase, he said, adding that the exports will start in 2013.

  

Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi had previously announced that his country is planning to import about 800,000 cubic meters of natural gas a day from Iran to supply fuel for the power plants through a 300-million-dollar investment.

 

Iran and Iraq inked in July a deal to export 1.5 million liters of diesel per day to Iraq for a one-year period.

The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company’s managing director, Alireza Zeighami, and Iraqi Deputy Electricity Minister, Ra’ad Alharis, inked the deal in Baghdad.