Asia not Europe priority for Iranian gas exporters, says Minister

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh

Asia, not Europe, will be the main focus for Iranian gas exporters if sanctions are lifted, the country’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh told the German newspaper Handelsblatt in an interview published yesterday. “The priority of our gas industry is to ensure that our own country’s economy has large amounts of natural gas, as well as …. our neighbors  in Pakistan, India and  Iraq. Asia is much more attractive [than Europe] to us” he said. After the sanctions were lifted, Iran intended  “to sell oil and gas without any restrictions,” he added. “We also want to retrieve frozen  money and [use it] to buy the technical equipment needed by our oil industry.
Earlier this month, China announced that it had agreed to  build a gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan.