Natural gas to the Iraqi capital Baghdad that had been suspended last week after the magnitude 6.4 earthquake in Kermanshah Province, will resume soon, a spokesman for the National Iranian Gas Company said.
"The quake damaged the Sixth Iran Gas Trunkline (IGAT-6) through which gas flows to the neighboring Arab country from Naftshahr in Kermanshah Province," Majid Boujarzadeh was quoted as saying by Afkar News on Monday.
Repairs are expected to be completed soon and Iraqi energy officials will be informed as soon as the pipeline is up and running.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit the western regions namely Sarpol-e Zahab County in Kermanshah Province last Sunday, injuring 700 people and damaging natural gas infrastructure including pipelines, compressor stations and gas pressure reducing stations. Fortunately, no fatalities were reported.
The official said Iraq needs Iranian gas to feed its power plants and reduce chronic outages that have become a persistent source of public discontent and public fury.
"The tremor cut the war-torn country's electricity output by 2.500 megawatts per day."
IGAT-6 is a crucial pillar of the national gas grid that, according to NIGC official, has the capacity to transfer 110 million cubic meters of gas per day from South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf to the southern and western regions.
"Gas exports to the Iraqi capital currently stands at 8.5-9 million cubic meters per day and will reach 14 mcm by March," Boujarzadeh said.
Baghdad started taking Iranian gas in June 2017under an agreement signed by the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity. The contract was signed in 2013 and exports were scheduled for mid-2014. The repeated delays were said to be over the volatile security situation in Iraq.
Iran-Iraq gas export contract is a six-year deal that can be extended. Iraq's second largest city, Basra, is also set to receive Iranian gas via another pipeline.
Boujarzadeh said the infrastructure to supply gas to Basra is in place, but implementation of the project is subject to the “resolution of problems” by the Iraqi contractor in charge of infrastructure and Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity. He did not elaborate.
