The Iran–Iraq–Syria pipeline (called the ''Friendship Pipeline'' by the governments involved and the ''Islamic gas pipeline'' by some Western sources) is a proposed

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

running from the Iranian

South Pars/North Dome Gas-Condensate field The South Pars/North Dome field is a natural-gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is by far the world's largest natural gas field, IEA, World Energy Outlook 2008 - Chapter 12 - Natural gas resources and production prospects, p.298 ...

towards Europe via

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

to supply European customers as well as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. UPI, 25 July 2011
'Islamic pipeline' seeks Euro gas markets
/ref> The pipeline was planned to be long and have a diameter of . A previous proposal, known as the Persian Pipeline, had seen a route from Iran's South Pars to Europe via Turkey; it was apparently abandoned after the Swiss energy company Elektrizitätsgesellschaft Laufenburg halted its contract with Iran in October 2010 in the face of pressure over

U.S. sanctions against Iran The United States has since 1979 applied various economic, trade, scientific and military sanctions against Iran. United States economic sanctions are administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), an agency of the United States De ...

. Iraq signed an agreement with Iran in June 2013 to receive natural gas to fuel Iraqi power plants in Baghdad and Diyala. The contract covers per day over 10 years. Iran's plans to export of gas per day at standard conditions to Iraq by 2015. In July 2011 Iran, Iraq and Syria said they planned to sign a contract potentially worth around $6bn to construct a pipeline running from South Pars towards Europe, via these countries and Lebanon and then under the Mediterranean to a European country, with a refinery and related infrastructure in

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

. In November 2012 the United States dismissed reports that construction had begun on the pipeline, saying that this had been claimed repeatedly and that "it never seems to materialize." A framework agreement was to be signed in early 2013, with costs now estimated at $10bn; construction plans were delayed by the Syrian civil war. In December 2012 the

Oxford Institute for Energy Studies The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies is an energy research institution which was founded in 1982, and serves a worldwide audience with its research, guides understanding of all major energy issues. It is a recognised independent centre of the U ...

said that the project "remains doubtful. It is not clear how such a project will be financed given that both Iran and Syria are subject to strict financial sanctions."Hakim Darbouche, Laura El-Katiri and Bassam Fattouh (2012), Oxford Institute for Energy Studies
East Mediterranean Gas: what kind of a game-changer?
NG17, December 2012, p17 In July 2015, Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company (IGEDC) and Pasargad Energy Development Company signed a

BOT Bot may refer to: Sciences Computing and technology * Chatbot, a computer program that converses in natural language * Internet bot, a software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) over the Internet **a Spambot, an internet bot des ...

(build-operate-transfer) contract under which the

project owner In project management, an executive or project executive is a person who has ultimate responsibility for a project, and is a role defined in the recognized project management framework PRINCE2. It is appointed by the customer during the start of th ...

will provide 25% of finance and

National Development Fund of Iran The National Development Fund of Iran (NDFI) ( fa, صندوق توسعه ملی) is Iran's sovereign wealth fund. It was founded in 2011 to supplement the Oil Stabilization Fund. NDFI is independent of the government's budget. Based on Article ...

the rest for the construction of IGAT-6. The pipeline would be a competitor to the Nabucco pipeline from Azerbaijan to Europe. It is also an alternative to the

Qatar–Turkey pipeline The Qatar–Turkey pipeline was a proposal to build a natural gas pipeline from the Iranian–Qatari South Pars/North Dome Gas-Condensate field towards Turkey, where it could connect with the Nabucco pipeline to supply European customers as well ...

which had been proposed by

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

to run from Qatar to Europe via Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey.

Nafeez Ahmed Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed (born 1978) is a British investigative journalist, author and academic. He is editor of the crowdfunded investigative journalism platform INSURGE intelligence. He is a former environment blogger for ''The Guardian'' from ...

, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 30 August 2013
Syria intervention plan fueled by oil interests, not chemical weapon concern
/ref> Syria's rationale for rejecting the Qatar proposal was said to be "to protect the interests of tsRussian ally, which is Europe's top supplier of natural gas."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Islamic Pipeline Natural gas pipelines in Iran Natural gas pipelines in Iraq Natural gas pipelines in Syria Iran–Syria relations Iran–Iraq relations Iraq–Syria relations Proposed pipelines in Asia

See also

References