A senior Iranian energy official says the country will raise its planned natural gas exports to Iraq upon a request from the Arab country.



National Iranian Gas Export Company Director General Alireza Kameli said on Saturday that the amount of natural gas Iran has agreed to export to Iraq will increase to 40 million cubic meters per day (mcm/day), Shana reported.



In July, Iran and Iraqi officials agreed for 25 million cubic meters of Iranian gas to be delivered to Iraqi power plants in Sadr, Baghdad and al-Mansouryah through a 270-kilometer (167-mile) pipeline.



Speaking on the sidelines of his meeting with Iraq's deputy prime minister for energy, Hussain al-Shahristani, Kamali said the contract had originally had a duration of four years, which would be extended by another six years upon the request from the Iraqi side.

According to Kameli, Iranian gas exports to its western neighbor will gradually rise from an initial seven million cubic meters per day to 25 mcm/day by 2015 and ultimately to 40 mcm/day by mid-2015.


He said the two countries also plan to finalize a contract in the coming weeks for the export of another 50 million cubic meters per day of gas to Iraq's southern city of Basra.



Hawar Abdulrazaq