DMEA: Iran makes midstream progress

Iran is set to complete a pipeline that will enable increased gas flows to Azerbaijan under swap arrangements with Turkmenistan, while the government has signed off on the country’s first LNG project.

Mohammad Reza Joulayi, head of dispatching operations at the National Iranian Gas Co. (NIGC), told the Ministry of Petroleum’s (MoP) Shana news agency on August 7 that a 150-km pipeline running from Rasht on Iran’s Caspian Sea coast to a point near the Iranian village of Chelavand on the Gilan Province border with Azerbaijan will be ready for gas transfers within the next few days.

NIGC started the construction of the Rasht-Chelavand pipeline in 2019 with the aim of expanding its gas transfer network to colder regions in the north of Iran, including Ardabil Province. The project was accelerated last November after Iran signed a gas swap deal with Turkmenistan involving deliveries to Azerbaijan.

The deal allows Iran to receive 5-6mn cubic metres per day of gas from Turkmenistan for use in north-eastern localities. Contractually it is then bound to deliver the same amount of gas to Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Oil Pension Fund – a subsidiary of the MoP – said a day later that it has obtained a permit for a 5mn tonne per year (tpy) liquefaction train as part of the long-delayed Iran LNG project at Tombak Port.