"The launch of operation of this pipeline will pave the way for new energy equations in the region and the world," Ahmadinejad said after attending a ceremony on Wednesday to inaugurate the pipeline which passes through Dauletabad-Sarakhs-Khangiran.
He viewed construction of the pipeline as "a large and crucial task carried out through the technical assistance of the Islamic Republic and Turkmenistan's cooperation".
The president pointed out that the pipeline would first join the local grid in Iran's northeastern province of Khorassan and join Iran's national grid at a later stage, but in the near future.
The inauguration ceremony attended by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was held in Sarakhs region in Turkmenistan's Akhal province.
During the ceremony, both presidents underlined the strategic importance of the project for the expansion of Tehran-Ashgabat cooperation in economic and energy fields.
The pipeline will facilitate the hike in Turkmenistan's gas exports to Iran up to 20 bln cubic meters annually.
Elsewhere, the Iranian president pointed to Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan railway as a major change in regional economic equations, and stated that construction of the railway would cause a fundamental change in Iran's North-South corridor.
The primary agreement on the construction of the Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan railway was signed by the presidents of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan in April 2007 in the city of Turkmenbashi and its final agreement was signed in a summit meeting in Tehran in September of the same year among the three presidents.
The total route covered by the railway is 1000 kilometers, of which 90 kilometers would be in Iran, 700 kilometers in Turkmenistan and 210 kilometers in Kazakhstan.
|
