Iranian gas pipeline
© www.dw.comIranian gas pipeline, connection Turkey
Iran has indicated willingness to pipe its natural gas to Europe through Turkey once the sanctions against the Islamic Republic are lifted. Javad Amin Mansour, the director of Trade and Energy Affairs Negotiations Department of Iran's Foreign Ministry, has been quoted by the media as saying that a plan to the same effect is currently under study in Tehran.

"If there is demand from European markets, it is possible to transport the natural gas via Turkey. There are many factors to lead to such trade, but it is now too early to speak about those factors," the Iranian official has been quoted as saying by Anadolu news agency. "We expect the sanctions to be fully eliminated; thereafter, we can consider the marketing of natural gas, the routes and the buyers," he added.

Iran had for years pursued plans to export natural gas to Europe. A tentative scheme that was developed in cooperation with Nabucco - a consortium led by Austria's OMV - envisaged piping Iranian natural gas from the southern energy hub of Assaluyeh to Turkey and thereon to Europe. However, Nabucco eventually abandoned Iran in 2008 after complications grew the most important of which were US-engineered sanctions against the Iranian energy sector.

A parallel plan to export Iranian gas to Europe - again through Turkey - has been pursued by Switzerland's EGL, also known as Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft Laufenburg, However, it was also abandoned also as a result of the sanctions as well as other technicalities.

Iran's success to reach a deal with the P5+1 group of countries in July over its nuclear energy program and the prospects of the removal of sanctions against the country have already encouraged certain key players in both projects to revive negotiations with Iran.

Bulgaria said in April that it wants Iran back in Nabucco. Similar talks have also been held with the Swiss parties that were once pursuing imports from Iran through EGL.

Energy officials in Tehran had previously said exporting natural gas to Europe through pipelines is not economical but had instead raised the possibility of transferring the crucial fuel as liquefied natural gas (LNG).