Iran on Wednesday commenced the supply of natural gas to its western Arab neighbor Iraq via pipeline, a deputy at the National Iranian Oil Company told state news agency IRNA.
“Exports have begun at a rate of 7 million cubic meters per day and will eventually increase to 35 million cubic meters daily,” Amirhossein Zamaninia said.
Iraq needs Iranian gas to fuel its power stations and alleviate widespread outages that make it unbearable for Iraqis to withstand the country’s blistering temperatures in summer without electricity to run air conditioners.
Tehran and Baghdad reportedly signed a draft deal in 2013 to transfer Iran’s gas to two Iraqi power plants.
Operational and financial constraints in laying the pipeline and security concerns in Iraq had affected the gas deal. Iran also exports electricity to Iraq under a separate agreement.
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