The National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) says its exports of natural gas surged by more than a quarter in the calendar year ending March 2020.
NIGC chief Hassan Montazer Torbati said on Monday that annual gas exports had surged by a total of 3.6 billion cubic meters on March 19, an increase of 26 percent year on year.
Torbati said increased exports had come despite growing consumption of energy inside Iran where daily use of natural gas normally exceeds 600 million cubic meters during cold winter months.
He also said total gas production in the year to March had reached 270 billion cubic meters. Various statements by senior Iranian energy authorities shows Iran is aiming to reach a total output of one billion cubic meters per day.
A main focus of efforts to increase production is development plans at South Pars, the world’s largest gas field which is shared between Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf.
Iran has invested massively in the development of South Pars, a field where work stalled briefly in 2018 after major international companies, including France's Total and China’s CNPC, withdrew from the project under pressure from the United States.
Iran is determined to finish development of all 28 phases of South Pars on its own. However, progress at phase 11 is slow mainly because authorities have been seeking clarification from China over CNPC’s position on the issue.
Monday reports in the local media said that Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh will be part of a high-ranking Iranian delegation visiting China next week.
They said Zanganeh will raise CNPC’s case with senior Chinese authorities in a bid to sort out the issue for good.