The country's refineries produced close to 214 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the fiscal 2017-18, the National Iranian Gas Company's production manager said.
"The output indicates a hike of 9.3% compared with the corresponding period of 2016," Gholamreza Bahman-Nia also told Shana.
According to the official, the production of byproducts, namely gas condensates, ethane and sulfur, have also risen by 11%, 23% and 7.3% respectively in the period.
"As new South Pars phases, namely 13, 14 and 22-24, go on stream gradually, more fuel will be injected into Iran Gas Trunkline to be used either domestically or exported to foreign markets," he said, noting that the ongoing venture will also raise the country's export share of gas derivatives in international markets.
Commenting on plans to increase gas output for industrial purposes, Bahman-Nia noted that boosting capacity to sweeten the fuel in gas plants is a top priority of the Oil Ministry, as not only can it help curb air pollution, but it will also raise the country's export of oil derivatives like mazut and diesel as power stations no longer rely on them as feedstock.
"Providing manufacturing sector with stable, clean and inexpensive energy will help it take major steps to improve the quality and quantity of their products, which benefits the whole economy," he added.
--- Gas Export
According to Saeed Momeni, the National Iranian Gas Company's director for gas supply, Iran's natural gas export via pipelines to neighboring states, namely Iraq, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan's autonomous republic of Nakhchivan, has reached 43 million cubic meters per day.
"Iran produces about 850 million cubic meters of gas per day and based on the Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2017-22), the country's global export share should reach 10%," he said.
Giving a breakdown on gas export, Momeni added that just over 1 million cubic meters per day of natural gas are sold to Armenia, which uses it in power plants to generate electricity that is exported to Iran when demand peaks in summer.
According to the official, about 12 mcm of gas are currently supplied to Baghdad daily, making Iraq the second largest gas customer of Iran after Turkey.
Momeni noted that Turkey receives more than 90% of Iranian gas under a long-term contract, which amount to around 10 billion cubic meters per annum or about 30 mcm/d.
Iran also receives gas from the Republic of Azerbaijan on the Astara border and delivers it to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic through the Jolfa border terminal.
Reportedly, Iran has been engaged in protracted gas export talks with Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan and India, none of which has yielded positive results yet.
"Close to 203 billion cubic meters of gas were burnt in the country in 2017," he said, adding that Iran accounts for 1% of the world's population, yet it has been ranked as the third largest gas consumer in the world, which is why the country's 20-Year Vision Plan to export 200 mcm/d of gas is very unlikely to be fulfilled.
According to the official, 1,110 cities, 720 villages and 81 power plants have already been connected to the national gas grid and plans are underway to provide 21,000 more industrial units with gas by the end of the current fiscal year (started March 21).
Momeni noted that natural gas accounts for 70% of the country's energy basket.
According to Hamidreza Araqi, the managing director of state-run National Iranian Gas Company, 22 million Iranian households consume more than 550 mcm of natural gas per day, because of which the country's international share of export—almost 2%— is not comparable with that of a small neighboring state like Qatar whose export covers a large portion of the world supply.
