Iran Ready to Export Gas to Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE

Iran has the capacity to meet a major part of Asian and European markets’ natural gas need and is prepared to export the commodity to Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, said the Iranian deputy oil minister on Saturday. Ali Kordan made the statement in a two-day energy summit entitled “Energy Security in Turkey and Region”.

The official said international cooperation was a two-way track that would be expanded at a tension-free atmosphere.

He added oil had an about 40 percent share of world energy consumption while most of the countries chose natural gas as their desirable fuel, justifying security of supply, demand, access to investment sources, and access to information in oil and gas sectors was an undeniable factor.

Kordan said Iran was determined to transfer energy from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf and to lay gas pipelines from western borders to the eastern frontiers, terming as important the participation and cooperation of other states in the project.

He pointed to the suitable and simple rules of free zone particularly South Pars Special Economic Zone, saying the infrastructures of the zones had prepared an appropriate opportunity for foreign investment as basic plans on privatization of hydrocarbon industry had kicked off.

The deputy oil minister said scores of commonalities between Iran and Turkey had paved the way for developing bilateral cooperation in the energy sector.

Applying their suitable potentials, the two sides could invest in oil, gas, and petrochemical projects on each other’s soil or in a third country.

Kordan was installed as the deputy oil minister last October.

Before his appointment, he served as deputy minister of labor and social affairs and head of Technical and Vocational Training Organization.

Kordan had already occupied the posts of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s (IRIB) deputy for parliamentary and provincial affairs and head of Administrative Affairs Department as well as the head of Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance’s Administrative Affairs Department.