Iran’s production of natural gas has reached 900 million cubic meters (mcm) per day, according to latest government figures, as the country moves ahead with plans to build out its massive energy sector despite US sanctions imposed by the United States.

Head of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Hassan Montazer Torbati said on Wednesday that the value of Iran’s current daily gas output is equal to nearly five million barrels of crude.

Montazer Torbati said that increased output in Iran’s sprawling South Pars gas field had enabled the government to link more towns and villages to the national gas network in recent years.

Iranian government figures show production in South Pars, the world’s largest gas filed which is shared between Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf, has nearly tripled in seven years to reach over 700 mcm a day.

That has allowed Iran to link many electricity stations and manufacturing units to natural gas while saving precious fuels like gas oil for the purpose of export.

Iran’s national gas pipeline network is currently expanding to reach remote and normally deprived regions near the eastern and southeastern borders.

Montazer Torbati said the number of Iranian villages with pipeline access to natural gas has more than doubled in seven years to reach a total of 32,000.

“This means that on average some 3,000 villages are being linked to the gas network per year,” said the NIGC chief.

Recent reports have suggested that Iranian authorities are seeking to increase the amount of gas exports to Iraq and Turkey through launching new pipelines while plans are in place to start exports for a first time to Afghanistan.

Less than a tenth of Iran’s total gas output, around 70 mcm per day, is currently exported, mainly to Iraq and Turkey

 

Source: Press TV