Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 17
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran plans to increase its natural gas refining capacity to 330 billion cubic meters by March 2018, Hamid Reza Araghi, the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), said.
The country will increase the gas refineries from current 13 to 19, in order to materialize the purpose, Araghi said, the oil ministry's SHANA news agency reported April 17.
The country's gas refining capacity currently stands at 260 billion cubic meters per year, he added.
Araghi further said that the NIGC manages 70 percent of the country's energy basket.
Iran's gas refining capacity is above 550 million cubic meters per day, while the country uses more refining capacity in winter than summer due to soaring consumption level volume in cold seasons.
Iran produced 178.1 billion cubic meters of gas during the last fiscal year (ended on March 20) and the country's sweet gas production increased by 6 percent last year, compared to the previous year.
The Islamic Republic holds 34 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves, sharing 18.2 percent of total global gas reserves, which puts the country in the top of the world's gas holders list.