Tehran: Iran, Iraq and Syria have signed the Middle East’s biggest gas contract for the transit of Iranian gas from the country’s South Pars gas field to Europe via Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea. The 10-billion-dollar agreement was inked by oil ministers of Iraq and Syria Abdul Kareem Luaiby and Sufian Alao and Iran’s caretaker Oil Minister Mohammad Aliabadi.According to the deal, Iranian gas will be transited to European countries, including Greece, via a 5,000-kilometer pipeline from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea.
Iraq has already said that it needs between 10 to 15 million cubic meters of Iran’s gas, Syria about 15 to 20 million cubic meters, and Lebanon about five to seven million cubic meters until 2020.
Iran, which sits on the world’s second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, is trying to raise its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in its South Pars gas field.
