Oil Minister: Iran's energy cooperation with Iraq growing

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi underlined development in energy cooperation between Tehran and Baghdad, and said the country supports the Iranian companies which provide Iraq with the needed equipment for implementing oil projects.Qassemi said on Wednesday that Iran is keen to expand oil cooperation with Iraq.He told reporters on the sidelines of the 18th International Oil, Gas, Refining and Petrochemical Exhibition in Tehran that Iran is ready to cooperate with friendly and neighboring country of Iraq.He said that cooperation in joint oil fields and exporting Iran's gas to Iraq are examples of the growing cooperation between the two countries.Qassemi said that Iran supports Iranian companies that supply Iraq with equipment needed for oil projects.Iran has basically agreed to pump 25 mcm per day of natural gas to Iraq.Late in January, Iranian Oil Ministry Spokesman Alireza Nikzad Rahbar said the country would start exporting natural gas to Iraq by next summer.Nikzad Rahbar added that the Friendship Pipeline project under construction between Iran, Iraq and Syria, is the most important project currently pursued by the ministry.The pipeline will be designed in such a way that it will be able to deliver gas to other Muslim countries like Jordan and Lebanon in the future.The 56-inch pipeline will start from Assaluyeh, near the massive offshore South Pars Gas Field in southern Iran, and will continue into Iraq to feed three Iraqi power plants running on gas.Iran, which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, is making efforts to raise its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in South Pars gas field.