Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.17/ Trend's F. Milad
Iran has produced 120 billion cubic meters of natural gas since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 20th, the Dispatching Director of National Iranian Gas Company said on Monday.
Iran currently produces 550-600 million cubic meters of gas per day, the IRNA News Agency quoted Hassan Montazer Torbati as saying.
The Iranian oil minister announced on December 14th, that Iran plans to sign some new gas export contracts in near future.
Iran will begin the construction of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline in 30 days, Rostam Qasemi said.
Iran also plans to start construction of the Iran-Iraq gas pipeline, he added.
Qasemi went on to note that Iran has put a ban on the export of some oil products.
On December 2nd, the Iranian oil minister put the country's oil production capacity at 4 million barrels per day, the ISNA News Agency reported.
By the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan in March of 2016, Iran's gas production capacity will have reached one billion cubic meters per day, Rostam Qasemi said.
"By the end of the plan, the country will also produce 5.6 million barrels of oil per day," he added.
In November, Qasemi said that 775 million cubic meters (mcm) per day of gas could be extracted from South Pars after all its phases come on stream.
Iran is currently producing 300 mcm per day of gas from South Pars. The country, which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, has been trying to enhance its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in its South Pars gas field.
South Pars is part of a wider gas field that is shared with Qatar. The larger field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran's territorial waters (South Pars) in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, referred to as the North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.
The Iranian gas field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, about eight percent of the world's reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of LNG resources.