UPI: Negotiations are under way to choose contractors for the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Iran to Iraq, Iranian officials said. TEHRAN, May 15 (UPI) — Negotiations are under way to choose contractors for the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Iran to Iraq, Iranian officials said.
The managing director of Iran’s Gas Engineering and Development Co., Ali Reza Qaribi, said a 48-inch pipeline to Iraq would carry around 880 cubic feet of natural gas per day once completed.
Both sides have entered into a new round of negotiations over contractors for the natural gas pipeline. The semiofficial Fars News Agency said Iran’s natural gas could be redistributed from Iraq to Europe through Syrian soil.
Tehran said both sides already have construction agreements in place and negotiations were centered on finding the proper contractors, the Fars report adds.
The project would cross the Iranian border in Ilam province near central Iraq.
Natural gas from Iran would be used by Iraq to fuel its power stations. Parts of Iraq still struggle with electricity generation more than nine years after the U.S.-led invasion.
Qaribi last week offered few specifics about the pipeline other than to say that the required steel for the pipeline was purchased.