Iran has began testing a pipeline built to transport natural gas to Iraq to feed the country’s power plants, says an Iranian official.
"After the end of cleaning and calibration pigging, 97
kilometers (Iran’s section) of the pipeline will become operational,” Alireza
Gharibi, managing director of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company,
said on Friday, according to Press TV.
He added that the 97-kilometer pipeline, 48 inches in
diameter, will be linked to Iran’s gas trunklines (IGATs) to deliver natural
gas from Iran to Iraq.
Last month, Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister for International
Affairs and Trading Ali Majedi said Iran is expected to start pumping gas to
Iraq early next Persian calendar year, which starts on March 21, 2015.
Iran has agreed to export 25 million cubic meters (mcm) a
day of gas to Iraq, but the gas delivery will start at seven mcm per day.
The 270-kilometer pipeline stretches from the village of
Charmaleh, located in Iran’s western province of Kermanshah, into the town of
Naft Shahr on the border with Iraq.
The pipeline, which is estimated to earn Iran USD 3.7
billion a year in revenues, will be fed by the massive offshore South Pars gas
field in southern Iran.
The South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar in
the Persian Gulf, is estimated to contain 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and
18 billion barrels of condensate.