Damascus - Syria and Iran discussed on Tuesday the joint projects both countries are seeking to carry out in the fields of oil and gas.
Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sufian al-Allao and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Mir Kazemi reviewed during a meeting means of boosting bilateral cooperation particularly in the areas of gas and refining industry.
Cooperation between the two countries started with signing a memo of understanding on exporting the Iranian gas to Syria and was furthered through agreeing on the main principles and the mechanism of coordination to transfer gas to Syria through Turkey.
Minister al-Allao said they are speeding up measures to carry out the gas pipeline between Aleppo and the Turkish borders to connect with the Turkish network through which to import gas from Iran to Syria.
He pointed out discussions are also underway regarding an Iranian-proposed project to establish a pipeline to pump gas from Iran to Syria across Iraq to be linked with the Arab gas pipeline.
The Minister added the project would allow great amounts of gas to be transported to Syria and exported gas through the Syrian ports, which would help it achieve good returns.
Al-Allao noted that cooperation with Iran is basically in the refining industry, referring to the refinery under construction in al-Fruklus area, shared by Syria, Iran and Venezuela.
For his part, the Iranian Minister Kazemi highlighted that the joint gas and oil projects reflect the steady cooperation between the two countries, referring to the existence of good potentials for boosting cooperation in the various areas of energy in the interest of the Syrian and Iranian peoples.
Iran has 16 percent of the world gas reserves, coming second after Russia in this field.
© SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2011
