Turkey in talks with Iraq over gas pipeline link: official

Istanbul (Platts)--11Apr2011/708 am EDT/1108 GMT

Turkey is in talks with Iraq over the possible construction of a gas pipeline to carry Iraqi gas to Turkey and on to Europe, a spokesman for Turkey's energy ministry confirmed Monday.

The spokesman confirmed that Turkey's state-owned gas importer and pipeline operator Botas had begun talks with Iraqi officials over the construction of a pipeline but was unable to give any details of the possible capacity, the expected route or when construction could be expected to start.

Speaking to Platts in January, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said that Iraq would have 30-50 billion cubic meters/year of gas available for export in seven years, once it had completed its program of building new gas-fired power plants.

While some analysts consider the volume and the timescale given to be ambitious, privately both Turkish officials and representatives of companies working in Iraq have been confirming that significant volumes of Iraqi gas are expected to be available for export to Turkey within a decade and that these volumes will be large enough to impact on existing plans for gas export pipelines to Europe.

--David O'Byrne, newsdesk@platts.com

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