Iran's gas exports have increased by 19% in the first five months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Aug. 22), compared with the same period of last year, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company said.
“During the period, gas export averaged 70 million cubic meters per day, while last year’s figure was 59 mcm/d,” Majid Chegeni was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana.
The official noted that gas exports to Iraq experienced 20% growth and exports to Turkey also increased this year.
Close to 30 million cubic meters of gas per day are sold to Iraq and Turkey buys around a quarter of its 40 billion cubic meters of piped natural gas a year from Iran.
There has been a 64% growth in the repatriation of oil export money and Iran’s gas export earned $1.6 billion during the period, he added.
Iran sits on the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia. It accounts for 17% of global gas reserves. The country mainly exports gas to Turkey and Iraq.
Regarding oil sale, Iran continues to export more than 1 million barrels of oil per day this year, which is 40% higher than what Iran sold last year.
The country has succeeded in keeping the sale of oil steady while it is under tough sanctions imposed by the US. With the efforts of all industry players, oil production was not halted even for a day in the past four years when the country was hit by a new round of sanctions.
The country sits on the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Canada.