Iran and Iraq have finalized the development plan for the constructing a pipeline to carry gas to the neighboring Arab country while its contract is in final stage of being drafted, said international relations director at the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC).
"The Iraqi side has also begun initial executive work," Azizollah Ramezani told Shana.
Despite of security concerns in Iraq, he added, the project is still on the agenda but has faced delays in decision making.
"The executive phase of the contract to export 25 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas to Iraq will begin once the document is signed," he added.
NIGC is to supply up to 35 mcm of gas to Iraq daily in view of the latest amendment to the gas export contract.
The amount will be delivered to Iraq's Basra mainly for generating electricity during the five hot months of the year.
Gas transfer to Iraq will begin with 5mcmc/d and this figure will reach 35mcm/d with the completion of a gas pipeline project from Iran, Ramezani said.
Iran completed its share of the 97-km pipeline in late August.
Alireza Gharibi, managing director of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company, said in July that the final tests as well as cleaning and calibration pigging on the pipeline were completed and the pipeline would be ready to export natural gas on August 20.
The pipeline, which is 48 inches in diameter, is also linked to Iran's gas trunklines (IGATs) to deliver natural gas from Iran to Iraq.
In its first phase, the pipeline will carry 5mcm/d of natural gas to Iraq, and the amount will rise once the line is linked to IGATs.
The 270-kilometer pipeline stretches from the village of Charmaleh, in Iran's western province of Kermanshah, to the town of Naft Shahr on the border with Iraq.
The pipeline, which is estimated to earn Iran an annual $3.7 billion in revenues, will be fed by the massive offshore South Pars Gas Field in southern Iran.
South Pars Gas Field, which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, is estimated to hold 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of condensate.
Iraq needs Iranian gas for power generation to solve a part of its load-shedding problem during hot summer days.
Besides the envisaged gas supply, Iran will also train technical, financial and executive manpower in Iraq, he added.