Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.22 /Trend, A.Yusifzade /
Iran's annual revenues from oil and gas production over the five year development plan (2010-2015) will reach up to $250 billion, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) managing director Ahmed Galebani was quoted by SHANA as saying.
Based on the latest revision of oil and gas field's explorations, Iran's crude oil reserves amount to 150.310 billion barrels and the figure will raise by the end of the year, Iranian oil minister Masoud Mirkazemi said.
On gas reserves, the minister said that the volume amounted to 33.1 trillion cubic meters noting oil and gas reserves of the country are being reviewed and announced monthly by a board at the oil ministry's department of planning and supervision on hydrocarbon resources.
Mirkazemi said that Iran should invest $200 billion in the oil industry over the next five year development plan (2010-2015), of which $70 billion has been finalized.
Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oji said that the country's daily production of natural gas has reached 600 million cubic meters (mcm) in the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 21, 2010.
"Today, over 54 power plants in the country use gas to procure their fuel needs, and in summertime the gas consumption of power plants hits 210 million cubic meters per day. Moreover, more than 33,000 major and non-major industries of the country use gas for their fuel needs," Oji said.
He stated that 13 gas refineries are currently operational in the country.
Oji also said that the country's network of gas pipelines has expanded to 33,000 kilometers, some 20,000 kilometers of which are part of inner city and rural networks.
He added that 9,300 Iranian villages now have access to gas.
In November, Oji said that the second nationwide north and northeastern gas transport pipelines and the second Iran-Turkmenistan gas transport pipeline come on stream, it will be possible to connect Iran's gas network to neighboring countries - Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and the Republic of Azerbaijan - as well as Persian Gulf littoral states, and thus the country can become a regional gas hub.