Iran plans to convert a third of the gas it will export to Oman into LNG in the absence of a LNG facility in the country, the oil ministry's news service, Shana, reported over the weekend.
The two countries had signed an export deal in 2014 under which Iran will supply 28 million cu m/d of natural gas to Oman via pipeline for 15 years.
"From this volume, around 25-30% will be probably allocated for LNG," Alireza Kameli, managing director of the national Iranian Gas Exports Company, said.
"The details of free LNG capacity and the gas volume to be allocated will be determined at the next negotiations," he added.
This was discussed during Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh's visit to Muscat last Thursday.
"The value of this contract depends on the oil price. But at current prices, the value of exporting 10 billion cu m of gas on a yearly basis will be around $1.5 billion-2billion," Zanganeh was quoted as saying by Shana on Friday.
Oman had spare LNG capacity of around 1.5 million-2 million mt/year, Zanganeh said.
Iran planned to use Oman as a conduit to sell LNG to other countries in the region, Zanganeh said. Earlier, when Iran talked about using this free capacity to liquefy Iranian gas for exports, foreign companies were not willing to participate because of the sanctions, he added.
