Four companies, two from Iran and one each from Europe and Asia, are bidding for the contract to build the 1,800-km pipeline by 2014 under a build-own-operate deal, Mr Kasaeizadeh said. This type of contract gives the contractor the complete right to develop, finance, design, build, own, operate, and maintain the project. “Two Iranian contractors are ready to do it as a BOO deal and two foreign companies. This is new, for a foreign company to do a BOO contract for gas pipelines in Iran,” Mr Kasaeizadeh said in his last interview as head of NIGC before taking up the top post at National Iranian Gas Export Co (NIGEC).
It is understood that the contract will either be awarded to one Iranian company and one foreign company, or the two Iranian bidders may form a consortium with one of the international firms.
Iran is moving ahead with the plan to export some of its vast gas resources to Europe via pipeline. The new, Iranian Gas Trunkline 9, or IGAT-9, would be part of the planned Persian pipeline project that aims to transport gas from South Pars to Bazargan on the border with Turkey, and on to Italy, Austria, and Switzerland, according to Mr Kasaeizadeh. The South Pars field, which has an estimated 436 trillion cuft of gas reserves, is located offshore Assaluyeh, a port town in Iran’s southern Bushehr province, in the Persian Gulf.
Alternatively, Iran may export its gas to Europe via the 3,300-km Nabucco pipeline, which aims to transport 31bn cum/yr of gas from the Caspian region, the Middle East, and Egypt to Europe through Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Austria. Talks about Iran’s participation in this scheme are continuing; however, potential Iranian involvement in Nabucco and alternative plans for gas exports to Europe are facing considerable resistance from the US, which is seeking to curb international business with the country.