Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

As hopes for a resolution of the nuclear dispute on Iran’s nuclear energy program are rising, the Islamic Republic is eyeing to enter the energy market, especially Europe, which is in search of new energy resources.

However, the country is not in favor of supplying Europe with natural gas via pipeline. A senior energy official has said Iran has removed the idea of pipeline transport of gas to Europe because of its waning economic value.

“Given the gas price decline in Europe, the economic viability of the project has probably decreased. Besides, the market share of single shipments and LNG has grown,” said Rokneddin Javadi, CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company.

He explained that the economic value of the project for gas exports to Europe has weakened and therefore has been removed from the government's priority list, but no negotiation has been cancelled out yet.

Iran voiced, a while ago, its intention to participate in the Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages taking Caspian Sea resources to energy-hungry Europe.

Mohsen Pakayin, Iran’s Ambassador to Baku has recently said Tehran is “looking into the possibility of buying equity” in the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) which is projected to hook up Azerbaijan’s gas to European markets.

Meanwhile, Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh said Iran prefers to transfer its gas to Europe in LNG form.

“The gas price in Europe has made infrastructural projects such as pipelines not economically viable,” he said.

Zangeneh went on to say that” building a pipeline is out of the question but there are many problems involved and this is not our prime option.”

The surprise remarks came after another official said Iran was weighing whether or not to join a major pipeline for transfer of Caspian gas to Europe.

Iran sits on the world’s second largest gas reserves, put at 34 trillion cubic meters.

--

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

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz