September 12-14
The construction of Iran’s gas pipeline to Iraq has been completed and it now reaches that country’s Al-Mansoureh power plant, the Fars news agency quoted an Iraqi source as saying Saturday.
“Iran’s gas will be fed into Al-Mansoureh power plant once the pre-startup tests on the pipeline are complete,” the source said.
In July, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Ali Majedi said Iran expected to start pumping gas to Iraq soon after next Now Ruz. Iraq would then become only the second country buying large quantities of Iranian natural gas. Turkey has been buying Iranian gas through a pipeline since 2000.
The Iraqi source said the supply of Iranian gas should have already started but was delayed by terrorist operations in Iraq. Several Iranian pipeline workers were killed last year in an attack.
Iran has agreed to export 25 million cubic meters per day of gas to Iraq. The gas will drive three power-generating plants and go a long way to ending Iraq’s perennial blackout problems.
The 270-kilometer pipeline stretches from the village of Charmaleh, located in Iran’s Western province of Ker-manshahan, into the town of Naft Shahr on the border with Iraq and then into Iraq and onto the outskirts of Baghdad
The gas, which is expected to earn Iran $3.7 billion a year in revenues, will be fed from the South Pars gasfield in the Persian Gulf.