TEHRAN (PIN) – The private sector would make a five billion dollar investment to construct the 9th cross-country pipeline, said deputy oil minister for gas affairs here on Wednesday.

Reza Kassaeizadeh told reporters the 1,800-kilometer long pipeline with 17 gas pressure stations would be built to transfer the country’s gas to Turkey and Europe and to meet the shortage in western parts of the country.
“The 56 inch pipeline’s starting point is in Assalouyeh, southern province of Bushehr, and extends to Bazargan border in northwestern Iran, carrying 110 million cubic meters of gas per day,” he added.
“The pipeline is at the design stage,” said the deputy minister, adding the project would be implemented on the build-own-operate (BOO) basis.
The six-nationwide gas transmission pipeline would be put into operation by the end of current Iranian calendar year (March 19, 2008), the executive manager noted.
Ali-Akbar Sha’banpour added the main aim behind construction of the pipeline was to transfer gas sweetened in phases 9 and 10 of South Pars field.
According to the official, the project funded with over 10 trillion rials (1.07 billion dollars) was underway, making an 86 physical progress so far.
He said the sixth pipeline would have the capacity to carry 100 million cubic meters of sweet gas per day; however, he added it would pump 50 million cubic meters of gas sweetened by phases 9 and 10 from Assalouyeh to Bidboland.
On its way, Sha’banpour said, the pipeline would feed the southern provinces of Khuzestan and Bushehr, linking the first cross-country pipeline at the outlet of Bidboland Refinery.
Iran’s gas transmission lines will span more than 37,000 km by the end of Fourth Five-Year Socioeconomic Development Plan, 2010, said the managing director of Iran’s Gas Transmission Company.
“For the time being there are over 25,000 km of transmission lines,” Mostafa Kashkouli said, adding every year 2,000 km was added to the figure.
“Gas pipelines expand in proportion to the country’s natural gas consumption and National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) is to improve production, transmission, and distribution facilities.”
Over 2,900 km of gas lines was added last year, Kashkouli added.