BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.14
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Iran will remain in the TOP3 natural gas producer by 2050, according to the Global Gas Outlook of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), Trend reports.
“The US, Russia, and Iran are currently the top three natural gas producers in the world, and it is expected that this ranking will remain unchanged by 2050, similar to our previous forecast. These significant gas producers will keep expanding their exploration and will in aggregate increase their annual production by more than 1 tcm, which will account for 42 percent of the total global incremental volume expected by 2050,” reads the report.
Iran is among the main sources of growth in gas output in the Middle East, according to GECF.
“With almost 17 percent of global gas production, the Middle East is the third-largest gas exporter worldwide after North America and Eurasia. The region produced around 660 bcm in 2018, a growth of more than 5 percent year-on-year. Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are the main source of the growth. These three countries, in addition to Oman and UAE, are the largest gas producers in the region and provide more than 90% of gas output in the Middle East. Iran alone is the source of more than one-third of Middle East gas output and more than 6% of global marketed gas production,” reads the report.
Most GECF countries will enhance or maintain their level of gas production capacity over the outlook period.
“Russia, Iran, Qatar, and Nigeria will make the largest contribution to the total GECF gas production expansion accounting for around 78 percent of total GECF incremental value over the outlook period,” the report says.
With proven natural gas reserves of 31.9tcm in 2018, Iran holds the biggest natural gas reserves of all nations in the Middle East. The country’s gas reserves account for 16.2 percent of the world’s total natural gas reserves.
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