Iran Offers $1.5 Billion Tender for Second Iraq Gas Pipeline

Iran is offering a $1.5 billion tender for the construction of a second pipeline to carry natural gas to neighbouring Iraq, state owned Shana News quoted managing-director of Iran Gas Engineering and Development Company (IGEDC) as saying. Ali-Reza Gharibi said the project will be a build-operate-transfer (BOT) one and all costs will be recouped through revenues from gas exports to Iraq, Shana reported. The project involves laying out pipeline from the Iranian city of Dezful to the border city of Shalamcheh and is estimated to take three years – one year for the pipeline and two years for pressure booster stations. The first gas pipeline between Iran and Iraq has been already been completed. Last year, Iran commenced pre-startup tests on the pipeline. After the end of cleaning and calibration pigging, 97 kilometers (Iran’s section) of the pipeline will become operational. The 97-kilometer pipeline, 48 inches in diameter, would be linked to Iran’s gas trunklines (IGATs) to deliver natural gas from Iran to Iraq. Azizollah Ramezani, director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) for international affairs announced earlier this month that about six to seven kilometers of the pipeline is yet to be laid on the Iraqi side of the border. Iran could begin supplying natural gas to Iraq by May this year, he said. Iranian and Iraqi oil ministers in July last year 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.