Iran to Discuss "Gas Swap" with Russia, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said the country will be negotiating natural gas swap projects with Russia, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan.

“[It's] true that we have not played a key role so far in the gas export market, but the trend will change,” ISNA news agency quoted Zanganeh as saying on November 17th.

He made the remarks in a press conference held in Tehran that the outlined plans and objectives of the third summit meeting and the 17th ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), which is to be held in Tehran on Nov. 20-23.

“We are exporting gas nearly as much as we are importing," he said. "Of course, we need to import in the long run. But, we want to have mutual import and export with countries, like Turkmenistan in order to buy from us goods in return for importing gas.

“Our priority is to export gas to the neighbouring countries. We are willing to export gas to Iraqi Kurdistan,” he added.

He also said that Asia and then Europe are currently the main prioritised destinations for Iranian LNG.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said that the presidents of Bolivia, Russia, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Venezuela, and Iraq, as well as the prime minister of Algeria will take part in the GECF summit. The president of Turkmenistan will participate as a guest.

Last week Iran announcedthat it is in talks with Rosneft to start a gas swap.