Russia, Iran continue working on gas pipeline project

MOSCOW. April 24 (Interfax) - Russia and Iran continue working on joint projects to create new land corridors for Russian gas shipments to Iran, a joint statement of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Iranian Petroleum Minister Mohsen Paknejad said.

The two sides also discussed the implementation of other joint energy infrastructure projects.

Another topic of discussion was the countries' coordination within OPEC+ and on the platform of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.

Russia is ready to help Iran broaden its trade and economic ties with the Eurasian Economic Union, Novak also said.

The talks were held ahead of the 18th meeting of the Russia-Iran Intergovernmental Trade and Economic Cooperation Commission on April 25. The meeting is expected to led to the signing of a number of cooperation documents in various sectors, Iran's Shana news agency said.

In early 2025 Iran and Russia agreed on the itinerary of a gas pipeline from Russia to Iran: it would pass through Azerbaijan. Initially the pipeline would have a moderate capacity of 2 billion cubic meters per year, but there was a preliminary agreement to increase that to 55 billion cubic meters, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev said then.

Last week Iran's Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said the two countries had almost fully resolved their issues in the framework of a project to transit Russian gas across Iran: "The document has been signed. We are fully prepared and are conducting technical studies, while issues are resolved 90%". In the framework of the project in question, there was a possibility to start using again the existing gas pipeline, and to also build a new one as a branch of the existing pipeline, Jalali said.