Iran and Swiss firm signs rare gas deal
Posted: 24 March 2008
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Iran and Switzerland has signed a major energy deal that will allow the European country to tap Iranian gas, a move that could lessen Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, according to Iran’s oil ministry news agency.
In a rare accord with the west, Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey signed the agreement with her Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki in Tehran last week sparking criticism from the US.
The deal was described by Calmy-Rey as a strategic interest as part of the country to diversify its energy sources, defending it from the US rebuke.
“We have conveyed to the Swiss that major new oil and gas deals with Iran send precisely the wrong message at a time when Iran continues to defy UN Security Council resolutions,” the US embassy in Bern said in a statement, according to AFP.
Iran, which is slapped with sanctions imposed by US, the Swiss minister has reportedly said that the contract does not violate any of the sanctions.
According to Iran’s oil ministry new agency, the contract signed between National Iranian Gas Export Company (Nigec) and state gas firm Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft Laufenburg (EGL), will allow the European country to import 5.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from 2011.
“It is planned that natural gas from Iran together with natural gas from Azerbaijan will one day feed into a gas pipeline running from Greece via Albania to Italy,” the Swiss foreign ministry was quoted as saying.
Iranian Minister of Oil Gholamhossein Nozari added that the gas will be pumped to Turkish border and delivered to EGL. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Iran, holding the world’s second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, is believed that it may become a reliable energy supplier for Europe.
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