Iran’s gas export earned $4 billion in the first four months of the current Iranian year (March 21—July 22), which is equals to the revenues earned throughout last year, the oil minister said.
“In the first four months of the year, the collection of claims was upward compared with the same period of last year, and there was also a 55% growth in the repatriation of oil export money as well as the sale of crude oil, gas condensate and natural gas,” Javad Owji was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana.
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.
Global gas prices have risen almost fivefold in 2022. And it was last month when Iraq paid $1.6 billion of its debt related to natural gas imports from Iran.
Gas export from Iran increased 25% in the first three months of the fiscal year and gas export revenue shot up 90% during the period.
Regarding the sale of oil, Iran continued to export more than 1 million barrels of oil per day in the first two months of the current Iranian year, which is 40% higher than what Iran sold in the same period of 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 rise in oil sales compared to previous months, along with the crude price hike in international markets, has helped raise Iran’s foreign revenues in this sector.
The Central Bank of Iran declared that more than $7.5 billion worth of oil and petrochemical sales were registered in the first two months, indicating a $3-billion hike compared with the income earned during March 21-May 21, 2021.
The country sits on the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Canada.
Development of Azadegan Field
The Iranian Cabinet has recently allowed domestic and foreign investments to raise the recovery rate of oil and gas fields from below 20% to 34%.
Speaking about Azadegan Oilfield, Owji said, “Over $7 billion are being invested by six banks and six large economic holdings in the largest joint oilfield with Iraq.”
“We have started the development of Azadegan field and now we are extracting 190,000 barrels of oil from this field on a daily basis. Within the next few years, we will reach 570,000 barrels per day of oil output from the field,” he added.
The vast Azadegan field has been divided into North Azadegan and South Azadegan. The two fields had been developed separately, but a master plan has been prepared for the integrated development of the entire field.
South Azadegan is estimated to hold 25.34 billion barrels of oil in place, while North Azadegan is estimated to hold 5.6 billion barrels.
Located 100 km west of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border, South Azadegan is estimated to hold 27 billion barrels of oil in place, of which 1.7 billion barrels are extractable. It is part of the West Karun oil block in Khuzestan.
West Karun, Iran's top priority for raising crude production to restore the market share it lost to international sanctions, includes Mansouri, Yaran and Yadavaran, as well as North and South Azadegan joint fields. The block holds an estimated 67 billion barrels of oil in place.
