Signing a $2.3 billion contract to build 590 km of pipeline, Iranian companies are closer to future gas exports to Europe.
The MDs of the National Iranian Gas Company, the Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company (IGEDC) and Pasargad Energy Development Company Seyed Mehdi Mirmoezzi, Hamidreza Araghi and Alireza Gharibi signed a contract to complete building of the Iran Gas Trunkline-6 (IGAT-6).
Out of the 590 km length of the pipeline, 160 km will connect Dezfoul to Kouhdasht, along with other parts including 120 km long Kouhdasht-Bistoun line, 130 km long Kouhdasht-Charmaleh line, 141 km long Ahvaz-Shalamcheh line, and 34 km long Bistoun-Kermanshah line.
During the ceremony, Mirmoezzi hailed the contract as the first national project in Iran to be financed by private sector. The contract is a BOT (build-operate-transfer) contract under which the project owner will provide 25% of finance and National Development Fund of Iran the rest.
The pipeline will get up to the border with Iraq in two points going through two lines to Baghdad and Basra near the border. The repayment will come from gas exports to Iraq, the Iraqi Kurdistan region and Turkey.
Iran is expected to initially deliver 4 million cubic meters of gas per on a daily basis (mcm/d) before raising it to 35 mcm/d later to feed three electricity generation plants in Iraq.