Tehran, Ankara seal pipeline deal

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=135937&sectionid=351020103


Tehran and Ankara have reportedly signed a deal to build a one-billion-euro pipeline that will ultimately export Iran's natural gas to Europe.

Oil Minster Masoud Mirkazemi on Friday confirmed that the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGC) and Turkey's ASB Co. have signed a contract to build a 660-kilometer pipeline that will cross Turkey.

Based on the contract signed on Thursday, the pipeline is expected to be completed over the next three years and upon completion it will export 50 to 60 million meters of gas per day, head of the NIGC Javad Oji said in an interview on the oil ministry's Website Shana.

In October 2009, during Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Tehran, the two countries signed memorandums of understanding on oil and gas cooperation as well as transferring Iran's gas to European markets via Turkey.

Iran currently exports 25 million cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey per day and the figure could be increased to 30 million cubic meters a day.