Currently, about six to seven kilometers of the pipeline supplying Iraq with Iranian natural gas has yet to be laid on the Iraqi side of the border, Azizollah Ramezani said.
He also pointed to the security challenges facing the strategic pipeline on the Iraqi side of the border, saying that the Iraqi officials have already pledged to take necessary measures to secure the gas exports to the Arab country by May 2015.
Iranian and Iraqi oil ministers on July 21, 2013, signed the first deal to transfer Iran’s natural gas to two Iraqi power plants.
The project is aimed at supplying Al-Baghdad and Al-Mansouriyah power plants in Iraq with 25 million cubic meters (mcm) per day of natural gas.
Iran, which has the largest gas reserves in the world, seeks to enhance gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments.
In its Statistical Review of World Energy released in June last year, the BP classed Iran as the world’s top gas reserves holder with 33.6 trillion cubic meters.