Hamid Hosseini, a board member of Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Association, added that "preliminary negotiations are underway … The Iraqi side is interested in substituting petroleum products with Iranian gas in its industrial and residential sectors," ISNA reported on Sunday.
Hosseini noted that the gas infrastructure is under scrutiny to see whether it would suffice for raising the transfer capacity or new pipelines would be needed, according to Financial Tribune.
"The prospective deal will be different from other gas export deals with the Arab neighbor, since the previous one was inked with Iraq's Electricity Ministry," he said. The new deal would probably be signed with Iraq's Oil Ministry
Iran is currently exporting about 12 million cubic meters per day of gas to Baghdad from Naftshahr in Kermanshah Province through a pipeline diverging from the Sixth Iran Gas Trunkline. Basra, Iraq's second largest city, also needs Iranian gas to feed its power plant as part of efforts to reduce outages that have turned into a persistent source of public discontent.