Azerbaijan, Baku, Sep.11/ Trend R.Zamanov
Iran's oil ministry is preparing facilities to pump 700 million cubic meters of gas per day to the national gas network this winter to meet domestic use in the cold months.
The oil ministry is trying hard to inaugurate at least one phases 15 or 16 of the South Pars gas field by winter, the SHANA News Agency reported.
A part of phase 12 is also expected to come on steam then.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh recently visited Turkmenistan.
Zanganeh said that during his visit to Ashgabat, he has negotiated with Turkmen officials about the two countries' gas deal.
"We didn't discuss any new contract, but negotiated details of the previously signed contract," the IRNA News Agency quoted Zanganeh as saying.
"We intend to resume gas imports from Turkmenistan in exchange for exporting technical and engineering services to the northern neighbour," he added.
Iran has recently inaugurated a number of gas storage facilities. The country holds the world's third largest proven oil reserves and the second largest natural gas reserves.
The country's total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels with about 140 billion barrels of extractable oil. Moreover, heavy and extra heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.