Iran exported 3.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (March 21-June 21), up 9% from the same period of last year, thanks to higher supplies from its giant gas field in the south.
Mehdi Jamshidi-Dana, a deputy at the National Iranian Gas Company, made the statement but did not provide further information on outbound gas supplies, IRNA reported on Sunday.
Turkey and Iraq are the largest buyers of Iranian gas. While the former signed a 25-year deal in 1996 to take in 10 bcm of the fossil fuel from Iran annually through a pipeline, the latter began importing 5 million cm/d in June 2017.
“In the three-month period, about 19.2 billion cubic meters of gas were delivered to domestic power plants, which indicate a rise of 4.7% compared with the corresponding period of last year,” Jamshidi-Dana added.
According to NIGC’s data, the country’s gas production experienced an increase of 9.3% compared with last year’s same period, reaching a total of 60.8 billion cubic meters.
Jamshidi-Dana noted that 3.7 bcm of sweet gas have been injected into oil reservoirs in three months, which is 2.7 times the volume of gas injected year-on-year.
Iran has embarked on diversifying its gas market on the back of increasing output from South Pars, a major natural gas deposit it shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf.
Government data show the country is producing 880 million cubic meters of gas daily, more than two-thirds of which come from South Pars.
Officials estimate that supplies to Turkey and Iraq can take gas exports to the feasible level of 80 million cubic meters a day if exports to Turkey stabilize at the highest envisioned level.
Iran (34 trillion cubic meters) and Russia (32.6 tcm) hold the largest proven gas reserves, according to BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Latest surveys on hydrocarbon fields also show that the country's recoverable natural gas reserves have risen by 283 billion cubic meters.
