Baku, Azerbaijan, May 9
Trend:
Gas export is an economic, political and security necessity for Iran, the Islamic Republic’s oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, said.
Zanganeh said that besides gas export via pipeline to neighboring countries, LNG export is also among the policies of the ministry, given the fact that Iran holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves, the oil ministry’s SHANA news agency reported May 9.
However, Zanganeh added that gas exports would be considered only after supplying the domestic demand in various sectors including petrochemicals and steel industries.
Iran plans to bring the natural gas exports to 200 million cubic meters per day from currently 60 mcm/d by 2021.
The Islamic Republic holds around 34 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves, sharing 18 percent of total global gas reserves, which puts the country in the top of the world's gas holders list.
Iranian gas refineries processed 214 billion cubic meters (bcm) of sweet gas during the last fiscal year, ended March 20, 2018.