TEHRAN - Muscat plans to move ahead with the natural gas pipeline project in Iran, hopeful that U.S. sanctions on Iran will strictly target oil.

As reported by Gulf Times, Oman’s Oil Minister Mohammed Al-Rumhy declared, “We are still going ahead” with the pipeline, sending tender documents out to interested companies.

Al-Rumhy suggested Oman would continue to move forward with the project as Muscat was “still waiting for the detail of the sanctions.”

The U.S. Treasury has announced it will reimpose sanctions on the purchase of Iran’s petroleum, petroleum products and petrochemical products, namely transactions with the National Iranian Oil Company, starting Nov. 5.

Muscat hopes that ban will be applied to Iranian oil exports only, rather than gas.

The Iran-Oman gas pipeline, a major energy and engineering project, was agreed to last year after more than a decade of talks. A joint committee was formed to finalize the deal in July.

With an estimated cost of $1.2 billion, the pipeline would send 28 million cubic meters per day of Iranian natural gas to Oman via Iran’s southern port of Kuhmobarak, according to a January statement from the National Iranian Gas Company.

The gas would then be converted into LNG for export or could be used in Oman, which for some years now has seen its own reserves dwindling, hampering its economic growth.

EF/MA