The Minister of Petroleum told the cabinet meeting on Wednesday that construction of the pipeline carrying natural gas from Russia to Iran was an important development and unprecedented in Iran’s history.

He said: Currently, 23 gas processing plants produce 850 million cubic meters of sweet gas per day and in addition to that, the gas transfer project will provide the possibility for gas imports from Russia considerably.

He further noted that Russia with the sea bed gas pipeline construction technology has accepted to pay the cost of implementation of the project.  

“Implementation of this pipeline will ensure sustainable domestic gas delivery on the one hand and will increase the gas export capacity and continuity of it on the other hand”, the minister said.

According to him, the value of the gas trade will be 10 to 12 billion dollars annually.   

He continued: This 30-year contract could be marked as the culmination of the Martyr Ibrahim Raisi’s energy diplomacy approach that in addition to removing domestic natural gas imbalance will turn Iran into a natural gas hub in the region with great impacts on economic and political relations and trade.  

The Iranian National Gas Company (NIGC) and the Russian company Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in late June for gas transfer from Russia to Iran.

In a televised program on June 26, Javad Owji said that the MoU would have a great impact on the regional energy market.

He continued: over the past three months, my colleagues were engaged in talks with Gazprom officials which bore fruit and fortunately led to the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between NIGC and Gazprom in the presence of the Iranian acting president Mohammad Mokhber and the managing director of the Russian company Alexi Miller.

Owji said that Iran and Russia sit atop 60 percent of the world’s gas reserves, so signing this MoU is a great achievement with an impact on evolving energy equilibrium in the region. He further said that Iran with its widespread national gas pipeline network and the related infrastructures is fully prepared to take the gas.

The principal framework for gas transfer from Russia to Iran has been on the agenda since a long ago and the late president Ibrahim Raisi insisted on being finalized, the minister of petroleum said adding there is a readiness for changing the Mou into a contract in a short time that will be a turning point for both countries.