TEHRAN — Iran on Monday signed a $10 billion deal
with Iraq and Syria for the construction of a gas pipeline that would
deliver natural gas from Iran to the two states and to Europe, state
media reported.
The construction of the 3,500-mile pipeline is expected be completed in either 2014 or 2016.
The pipeline will eventually have a capacity to pump
110 million cubic meters of natural gas per day from Iran to Iraq, Syria
and Lebanon and via the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
The deal was inked in Tehran by oil ministry
caretaker Mohammad Aliabadi and the oil ministers of Iraq and Syria,
Abdul Kareem Luaiby and Sufian Alao.
Aliabadi referred to the deal as the Middle East’s
biggest gas contract and said the pipeline could in the long-term supply
Europe’s gas needs.
Iran has the world’s second largest natural gas reserves after Russia with an estimated 28 trillion cubic meters.
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