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Iranian oil minister: Country faces serious gas shortage

Iran Materials 27 August 2013 13:10 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug.26/ Trend F.Karimov/

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has said the country is facing a serious shortage of natural gas production, ISNA reported.

Some 90 million liters of liquid fuels (Diesel and fuel oil) is being burnt per day at power plants, he said adding that if the current situation continues, the figure will reach 170 million liters per day in winter.

He said that implementation of phases 12, 15, 16, 17 and 18 can increase Iranian gas outlet capacity by 180 mcm per day to feeds power plants instead of liquid fuels.

According to Energy Information Administration of the US, Iran's gas output was 5.4 trillion cubic foot in 2012, which equals to domestic consumption level.

Zanganeh also said that a series of changes in managerial posts across the oil ministry will take place in the next 10 days.

The ministry plays a role in setting the gasoline price, but it is not a key decider in this issue, the minister said. If we are able to manufacture low consumption and fuel efficient cars in the country, gasoline price could go up to 30,000 rials per litre, he added.

In 2011, Iran exported some 2.2 million barrels of oil per day. In 2012, exports fell to 1.2 mbpd. On August 22, Reuters reported that Iran's crude oil exports fell in the first half of 2013 by 20 per cent and reached 960,000 bpd.

It should be recalled that according to OPEC, Iran has produced some 2.684 million barrels of oil per day in July, unchanged from the previous month.

Zanganeh plans to increase the country's oil production capacity to that of the 2005 figure which was some 4.05 million barrels per day.

It should be noted that Iran's oil and gas export income during former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's two-term presidency (2005-2013) reached some $800 billion.

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