Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.28 / Trend F.Milad/
Iran produced around 90 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas in its refineries in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (began March 21, 2011), up 800 million cubic metres compared to the same period last year, an official of the National Iranian Gas Company stated.
"The gas output is expected to exceed 142 billion cubic metres by the end of the current (calendar) year," Mehdi Jamshidi-Dana told the Mehr news agency.
He also said that 14.1 million cubic metres of condensates was produced in the eight-month period, showing a one million cubic metre rise compared to the last year.
The Iranian oil minister has said the country's natural gas output will reach 1.47 billion cubic metres per day by 2015 (the end of the fifth five-year development plan). Rostam Qasemi told the IRNA news agency that the current gas output is 630-650 million cubic metres per day.
Iran has made it a priority to boost the gas production capacity from its joint oilfields with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the minister said.
The country sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia and is trying to grow its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments.