Tavakoli: Pipeline Route and Price and Payment Terms Still Stand Between the Gazprom Memorandum and a Gas Contract

Saeed Tavakoli, chief executive of the National Iranian Gas Company, said on the sidelines of the 8th International Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow on Friday night, 16 October 2026 (24 Mehr 1405), that the memorandum on transferring Russian gas to Iran, signed in the Iranian year 1403, could become one of the two countries' strategic long-term contracts. He said the National Iranian Gas Company and Gazprom have held numerous, continuing negotiations since it was signed.

Tavakoli named two remaining issues: the pipeline route, whose final technical studies are under way, and the price mechanism and method of payment, which are still being negotiated. He said that if these two or three points are settled, the contract will be final. Mehr published the remarks; no signing date, gas volume or price has been announced.