MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/. Russia’s Rosneft and the government of Iraqi Kurdistan "have negotiated an opportunity for Rosneft to participate in a project on funding of the construction of the Kurdistan Region’s natural gas pipeline infrastructure," the country’s top oil producer reported Monday.

"It is expected that a separate agreement under this project will be finalized by the end of the year," the report said.

Investment in the project will be under the BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer) arrangement, "to be recovered through tariff charges and an agreed upon rate of return basis," Rosneft said.
The expected annual export capacity of the pipeline is up to 30 bln cubic meters of gas, in addition to facilitating gas supply to key domestic users.
"The Kurdistan Region gas pipeline will not only supply natural gas to power plants and domestic factories throughout the region, but also enable exporting substantial volumes of fuel to Turkey and the European market in the coming years," the report said. Commissioning of the pipeline and the first domestic supplies are planned for 2019 and export supplies - for 2020.
Rosneft and the government of Iraqi Kurdistan signed a number of agreements to expand cooperation at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June 2017. One of the documents stipulates that Rosneft will receive access to management of a huge regional transport system on the territory of Iraqi Kurdistan having a daily capacity of 700,000 barrels of oil.