Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.22 / Trend F.Milad/
Iran and Iraq will sign a deal in a 30 days to finalize the Iranian gas export to its neighbor, Mehr News Ahency reported quoting Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Company's (NIGC) Javad Oji as saying on Saturday.
Some 170 kilometers of a pipeline that will transport gas from Iran to Iraq will be built in Iran and it will extend 190 kilometers into Iraq, he stated.
Oji said the deal is aimed to supply Iraq's four power plants with natural gas. Meanwhile, the negotiations on finalizing the construction of the planned Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline will go on he added.
Based on the deal, some 20 million cubic meters of natural gas will be exported to Iraq per day in the first phase, he said, adding that the exports will start in 2013.
Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi had previously announced that his country is planning to import about 800,000 cubic meters of natural gas a day from Iran to supply fuel for the power plants through a $300-million- investment.
Iran and Iraq inked in July a deal to export 1.5 million liters of diesel per day to Iraq for a one-year period.
National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company's Managing Director Alireza Zeighami and Iraqi Deputy Electricity Minister Ra'ad Alharis inked the deal in Baghdad.