Iran started to build a long-planned pipeline to export natural gas to Europe with an investment of at least 1.3 billion euros ($1.55 billion), state television reported Monday.

Iran plans to complete its section of the pipeline by 2013, the TV network said, without citing a source. The system will pass through Turkey and have a capacity of as much as 110 million cubic meters of gas a day, it said.
An earlier, unrealized version of this project was to extend to Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, according to details disclosed in September 2008. It was not immediately clear if the government intends the new project as an alternative to the planned Nabucco pipeline, a 7.9 billion- euro network for transporting gas from the Caspian Sea through Turkey to Europe. Iran already operates a pipeline to Turkey, its western neighbor.
Iran, home to the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia, has for years been under United Nations sanctions and U.S.-imposed restrictions on foreign investment. The sanctions aim to deter Iran from pursuing nuclear activity.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.
The Iranian section of the pipeline to Europe will stretch from the South Pars gas field to the Bazargan border post with Turkey, for a distance of about 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles), state television said.
Of the 1.3 billion euros that Iran has allocated to its construction, about 825 million euros will come from the Oil Ministry and the rest from other sources, the Tehran-based Pool newspaper reported, without elaborating or disclosing the source of the information.
(Source: Bloomberg)