Iraq signs $365m deal to import Iranian gas

Iraq signed a $365 million agreement to install a pipeline network to import natural gas from Iran for power stations in the country. The pipelines will eventually supply 25 million cubic meters of Iranian natural gas a day to the Sadr, al-Quds and South Baghdad power stations in the Iraqi capital, Mosaab Serri, a spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity, said on Thursday. The agreement with Iran, which holds the world’s second-largest gas reserves, requires the approval of the Iraqi Council of Ministers and Parliament. The pipelines will pass the Mansouriya gas field, which is due to supply gas to the two power plants instead of Iran starting 2016, Serri said in a statement on May 22. Iraq and Iran have also reached an initial agreement to install another pipeline network from the Iranian region of Abadan to Basra in southern Iraq where it will feed a planned 1,250-megawatt power station, Serri said.