Tehran, April 27, IRNA � Managing Director of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Hamid-Reza Araqi said on Monday that Iraq is not ready yet to begin importing Iranian gas, but if Baghdad announces its readiness gas exports to Iraq will begin as of late May, 2015.

'During the first year Iran will export five million cubic meters of natural gas per day to Iraq, which will gradually increase to 10 million cubic meters in the following years and eventually to 25 million cubic meters per day,' said Araqi on the sidelines of the 3rd Conference on Sustainable Gas Production.

On gas exports to Europe, too, the NIGC managing director said that the Europeans intend to diversify their energy sources and that is why importing gas from Iran is attractive to them.

'Yet, so long as the sanctions are not removed, gas exports to Europe will be out of question,' he added.

Araqi said that despite the European countries' interest in importing gas from Iran no negotiation with them has taken place yet.

'Iran is the first country in the world in terms of possessing gas reserves and the 3rd top gas producer in the world and for this reason there is no obstacle in the way of exporting gas to Europe,' added the NIGC managing director.

By IRNA