TEHRAN, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Iran could expand its share of the global export market for gas through enhancements to deals with Pakistan and Turkmenistan, authorities announced.
Iran sits of some of the largest gas deposits in the world, though Western-backed sanctions imposed on Iran for its controversial nuclear program keep many international companies at bay.
Mostafa Kashkoli, a deputy manager at the National Iranian Gas Co., said Turkmenistan was willing to increase gas imports from Iran by as much as 700 billion cubic feet per year, the Energy Ministry's Petroenergy Information Network reports.
Iran and Pakistan earlier this year agreed to the terms of a natural gas pipeline from the South Pars gas field after several delays. He said Islamabad could ask for more gas under that deal.
Baghdad last week, meanwhile, announced it approved of plans to build a pipeline through its territory to bring Iranian gas to Syria.
Tehran said the new artery in Iraq would give it the opportunity to hook its gas transit networks up to Turkey with the possibility of connecting to the Nabucco pipeline for Europe.
A spokesman for the Nabucco pipeline consortium said last week, however, that there were no plans to include Iran in that project "at this stage."
