NIGC Spokesman Majid Bujarzadeh made the remarks emphasizing that Iran is ready to inject gas into the export pipeline asserting “the Iraqi side is still unprepared to receive Iran’s natural gas.”

Earlier, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs Amir Hossein Zamaninia had explained that the pipeline for gas exports to Baghdad was replete with natural gas though Letters of Credit (LCs) first needed to be opened for the process to be resumed.

He noted that banking issues had to be fully resolved before Iranian gas could be deployed to Iraq stressing that “a letter of credit is a letter from a bank guaranteeing that a buyer’s payment to a seller will be received on time and for the correct amount.”

A part of the sixth national pipeline, which aims to conduct gas exports to Iraq, will be inaugurated in coming days while exports will still remain in a hiatus.

NIGC Managing Director Hamidreza Araghi will attend the unveiling ceremony on Tuesday and the second part of the sixth national pipeline with a length of 600 kilometers is still under construction.

The sixth national gas pipeline network has the capacity to carry 110 million cubic meters per day through which natural gas would be exported to Iraq and Syria.

National Iranian Gas Company and the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity and Power signed a gas contract in 2013 and it was in 2016 that an extension was added to the deal in order to increase its volume and duration.

Accordingly, gas exports will begin at seven million cubic meters per day and is scheduled to reach the highest level envisaged in the contract after 21 months. As such, in hot seasons 35 and in cold ones 25 million cubic meters of natural gas will be deployed to Baghdad region yielding an aggregate total of 10 billion cubic meters per year.

The deal for gas exports to Basra was also inked in 2015 as the second oil sale agreement to Iraq according to which 35 and 25 million cubic meters of natural gas will be exported to the Iraqi region in hot and cold seasons, respectively.

With nearly three years after signing of the gas contract between Iran and Iraq, gas exports to the neighboring country has faced standstills and delays mainly due to activities of ISIL terrorist group activities and also because of Iraq’s non-compliance to fulfillment of contractors’ financial claims.

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Speaking to an IRIB TV, Bijan Zanganeh touched upon roots of the halt in gas imports from Turkmenistan while highlighting that the volume of gas purchase from the neighboring country had been negligible.

The official said National Iranian Gas Company had been put in charge of pursuing the issue of termination in gas imports from Turkmenistan asserting that Oil Ministry or the Government would not follow up the issue.

He stressed that Islamic Republic of Iran pursued the policy of holding friendly relations with all neighboring states; “existing dispute between NIGC and Türkmengaz need to be resolved.”

Later into his remarks, Zanganeh recalled that 11 new South Pars phases had come on stream over the past three years or will become operational in the present year; “phases 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 will be inaugurated by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (to end March 20).”

The senior oil official further referred to the boost in production at West Karun joint oilfields saying “parallel with the rise in oil and gas production, implementation of Resistance Economy policies has been also put on the agenda of Oil Ministry.”

“Accordingly, gas transmission to villages is being undertaken,” highlighted Bijan Zanganeh adding that the gas transfer pipeline to Zahedan will be completed within months as promised earlier by the President.

He estimated that revenues from sales of crude oil and gas condensate will climb to about 41 billion dollars by the end of the ongoing Iranian year; “about 24.7 billion dollars of oil revenues were received in the first nine months of the present year.”

Oil Minister of Iran predicted that each baller of oil will be sold at 55 dollars adding “commitments of OPEC members to cap output became operational as of January 01.”

Zanganeh reassured that OPEC and non-OPEC members would meet their obligations as a result of which surplus of oil will be removed from the market giving way to a balance between supply and demand as well as to higher crude prices.

He recalled that oil prices were already enjoying an upward trend; “the present uplift in prices is rooted in effects exerted on market psychology by the freeze deal though more tangible outcomes are yet to be revealed once all partied curtail production.”

Oil minister deemed current market conditions as satisfactory and one the right path reiterating that “prices are not falling as even consumers would not favor very low figures.”

“Ultimately, producers and consumers have reached the consensus that low crude prices are contrary to interests of global economy, sustainable supply of energy and even production of new energies.”

At the end of his remarks, the official disavowed the claims that Iran’s oil revenues were blocked by certain countries concluding that “all profits from the sale of oil are being received smoothly.”

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