TEHRAN- Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh will visit Iraq next week to hold talks with his Iraqi counterpart, Fars news agency reported on Sunday.

Zanganeh is scheduled to discuss several issues including OPEC deal, construction of an oil pipeline between the two countries, selling gas to Iraq, and oil swap with Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government.

In August 2016, Reuters reported that Iraq was considering crude swap through Iran should talks with the autonomous Kurdish region on an oil revenue-sharing agreement fail; in this regard construction of an oil pipeline from Iraq’s Suleimaniya to Iran will be discussed.

Also in this visit, the two sides will discuss construction of an oil pipeline between Iran’s Abadan refinery and the city of Basra in Iraq for transferring oil to the Iranian refinery and sending back oil products to the Iraqi city.

Transferring Iranian gas to Iraq is another subject which will be covered in the upcoming visit. Resolving financial and banking issues are the main topics of negotiation in this regard. 

The deal for construction of a fire training site in the field of oil and gas in Iraq in which Iranian experts will train Iraqi fire fighters, will also be followed up in this trip.

EF/MG