Azerbaijan, Baku, May 08/ Trend F.Milad/
Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi has said the country is lagging behind its neighbours in production from joint oilfields.
"The share of Iran from tapping 29 joint oilfields is much less than its neighbours," he added, the Mehr News Agency reported.
Implementing the subsidy reform plan not only made the country self-sufficient in gasoline production, but also we managed to export up to $10 billion worth of oil products, he noted.
All the development plans related to joint oil and gas fields will be signed in the current calendar year, which began on March 20, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company said on May 1.
The NIOC head Ahmad Qalebani added that $20-25 billion worth of contracts will be concluded by the end of the year.
According to national development plans, crude oil and natural gas outputs should reach 5.1 million barrels and 1.4 billion cubic meters per day by 2015, respectively, the ISNA News Agency quoted Qalebani as saying.
Iran has attached a priority to boosting gas production capacity from its joint oilfields with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi has ordered all contractors of the South Pars gas field development projects to work round the clock in three shifts to complete development of all phases, especially the phases 12, 15, 16, 17 and 18.
The South Pars gas field is shared by Iran and Qatar. The Iranian share, which is divided into 29 phases, has about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight per cent of the total world reserves and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.
Qasemi said earlier that the country is approaching "total self-sufficiency" in the production of equipment required to service the country's oil industry.
"Much of the equipment needed for oil industry is being produced by domestic manufacturers," he added, Press TV reported.
Qasemi said that the global economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic will not be effective in hindering the country's oil industry progress.