Iran’s media have reported that the Dutch offshore engineering company Intecsea has expressed interest in the construction of a subsea pipeline for supplying Iran’s natural gas to Oman.
The company has officially submitted a proposal to participate in the project, Mehr News Agency has quoted the project's manager Mohammad Akbarzadeh as saying.
The construction of the Iran-Oman pipeline across the Persian Gulf will make Iran’s ambition to become LNG exporter come true, Azernews reported. With the realization of this pipeline, Iran will be able to use Qalhat LNG plant – which has the capacity to liquefy 10.4 million tons of natural gas per year - in Oman.
Intecsea has earlier undertaken construction of some offshore pipelines in the offshore South Pars gas field shared by Iran and Qatar, Akbarzadeh noted, adding that the company can cooperate with Iran by providing special engineering and technical services and studies.
The studies on the project have been completed by 22 percent, the project’s manager added.
Previously, South Korea's state-run Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS) and National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on constructing three major gas pipelines in the Islamic Republic including the Iran-Oman gas pipeline which experts say requires at least $1.5 billion investment.
Iran will export 28 million cubic meters of gas to Oman per day via a subsea pipeline within 15 years, according to the agreement signed between Tehran and Muscat in 2013.
In September 2015, after bilateral negotiations in Tehran it was announced that the project will be operational by late 2017.
Almost a third of the gas exported by Iran to Oman will be liquefied, and the rest will be consumed domestically.