Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Iran, which ranks second in the world for its natural gas reserves, has voiced its willingness to sell gas to Europe, even if doing so has no economic justification.

“This is because we want to use our economic relations to create some political cohesion,” Amir Hossein Zamaninia, the Iranian deputy oil minister in international affairs, was quoted as saying by the IRNA newspaper.

The Islamic republic, whose economy was battered by international sanctions imposed over its nuclear energy program, has long been eyeing ways to supply the European Union (EU) with natural gas.

Expecting a speedy removal of sanctions under the recent nuclear deal signed between world powers and Iran, Tehran seems close to achieving its purpose.

Zamaninia noted that currently, Japan, China, and the countries south of the Persian Gulf, except for Qatar, are seeking Iranian gas.

He added that European countries, too, have always expressed interest in buying gas from Iran.

“This is while, according to our calculations, Europe is importing more gas than it needs; therefore, the price of gas on the continent is lower,” Zamaninia said.

Europe is eager to engage in close energy cooperation with the Islamic republic, especially since the country's relations with major energy supplier Russia have cooled over the Ukraine crisis. The EU hopes to import gas from Iran, which has some of the world's largest reserves, to reduce its dependence on Russia.

High-ranking officials from the EU have recently stepped up visits to Tehran, aiming to look into prospects of energy cooperation with the Islamic republic.

“We want to have relations not only with the southern Persian Gulf littoral countries but also with Western countries. When economic relations grow, political disagreements diminish and that reduces the chances of having sanctions brought back,” Zamaninia stated.

Iran has the long-term potential to become one of the world's top gas producers, thanks to its 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, which is about 18 percent of the world's total reserves.

Iran's current raw gas output stands at 660 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d), but it is planning to increase this figure to 1,100 mcm/d by 2019.

The Islamic republic is exploring possible export routes to bring its gas to Europe. Although the country doesn’t possess the required infrastructure to realize this plan, it is discussing the possibility of transporting blue fuel to European customers via neighboring countries.

Experts believe that Iran needs investments to develop its infrastructure for exporting gas to Europe.

Some of them, however, noted that sending gas to Europe does not make commercial sense for Iran.

Matthew Bryza, the director of the Tallinn-based International Center for Defense Studies, earlier said Iran was surrounded by power-hungry countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Kuwait and that supplying blue fuel to these countries would be beneficial for Tehran.

Bryza also noted that it was unlikely that Iran would supply gas to Europe since this proposal did not make much sense from an economic point of view.

While experts did not rule out the possibility of gas supplies to Europe, Bryza did say that it would depend on three factors: a rise in demand in Europe, the lifting of sanctions on Tehran, and the production of gas beyond the volume consumed in Iran.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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