Iran and Iraq are ready to promote their cooperation in the
area of energy, Zanganeh said on Sunday after a meeting with his Iraqi
counterpart Jabar al-Luaibi in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
The two sides also agreed to construct a joint pipeline to
pipe Iraq’s oil through Iran, he added, noting that agreements were also
reached about an international company that will carry out a feasibility study
of the project.
Iran and Iraq signed a memorandum of understanding in
February to study the construction of the pipeline.
The Iranian oil minister also said that the Islamic Republic
would begin exporting gas to the Iraqi city of Basra in coming months.
He said there had been some problems in receiving payments
for current gas exports to Iraq via banks and that Iran was receiving cash
payments.
Al-Luaibi, for his part, described Tehran-Baghdad ties as
"strong”, saying that they had discussed transferring Iraqi crude oil to
Iranian refineries and returning byproducts to Iraq.
He added that the two ministers also reached an initial
agreement to develop the oil fields that the two countries share in the near
future.
Back in October last year, the managing director of the
National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) had said that the country was fully ready
to start exporting gas to Iraq as soon as the Arab country opens a line of
credit (LC) for the project.
Iran laid 100 kilometers of pipelines for the gas project.
The two countries signed a deal on the exports of natural gas from the giant
South Pars Gas Field to Iraq back in 2013.
Based on the agreement, 25 mcm of gas will be delivered to
Sadr, Baghdad and al-Mansouryah power plats through a 270-kilometer pipeline.
