Senior Iranian Oil Ministry officials have announced that they have reached agreement with the Pakistani government about shipping Iranian natural gas across Pakistan via pipelines to China.
National Iranian Gas Export Company managing director Hossein Bidarmaghz told journalists, "Iran's advantage over its rival countries (Qatar and Russia) is its location between two big natural gas consumption markets, China and Europe," Islamabad's The News newspaper reported.
Bidarmaghz highlighted China's growing need for natural gas and liquefied natural gas, noting that within two decades Chinese consumption of natural gas and LNG would be equivalent to Europe's total consumption, noting that if the Iran-Pakistan natural gas pipeline is extended to China it will facilitate gas exports to Pakistan as well, adding that Iranian and Chinese officials would review the matter in future.
In June 2009 Iran and Pakistan signed a 25-year agreement whereby Iran agreed to export 7.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Pakistan annually through a pipeline beginning in February 2014. A contract for the multi-billion-dollar Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline was signed in June 2010, which stipulates that Iran will export up to 21 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Pakistan annually.
By. Joao Peixe, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com
Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com More