Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan seek to import Iranian gas

TEHRAN,April 29(MNA) - Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have announced readiness to import natural gas from Iran, the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company stated. “Negotiations will start in the near future with the two Central Asian nations in this regard,” Abdolhossein Bayat added. Iran’s ambassador to Dushanbe has said that the Islamic Republic is planning to export gas to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and China via a new pipeline. "According to the agreement reached by the heads of Tajikistan, Iran and Afghanistan in Dushanbe, a pipeline will be built running from Iran to Tajikistan through Afghanistan and further to Kyrgyzstan and China," Ali Asghar Sherdoust said earlier this month. The three heads of state signed agreements on the establishment of connecting routes and the exchange of oil, gas and water during the fifth trilateral summit of the presidents of the three Persian-speaking countries in Dushanbe on March 25, 2012. Iran’s natural gas production capacity stands at around 554 million cubic meters (mcm) per day, the National Iranian Gas Company’s spokesman said on February 5. Majid Boujarzadeh told the Pana News Agency that taking the imported gas from Turkmenistan into account, some 600 mcm of natural gas is supplied across the country per day. Iran exported over 7.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the past calendar year, which ended on March 19, up 10.5 percent compared with the same period last year. Iran sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia.