Iran intends to ramp up gas
production by 2021, Amir Hossein Zamaninia, deputy minister of Petroleum for
Trade and International Affairs said Tuesday at the World Petroleum Congress in
Istanbul.
Iran's gas production is
expected to reach around 1,365 million cubic meters and oil production and is
projected to stand at nearly 5.7 million barrels per day by 2021, Zamaninia
said.
"We think that gas
will supersede oil in a few years in the global energy basket," Zamaninia
stated during the Congress, of which Anadolu Agency is the global communication
partner.
"We are right now
negotiating with other international companies and we hope to sign about 10
contracts, over the next 10 months,” he said.
Zamaninia reiterated that
Iran has the largest reserves of gas in the world, holds the world's
fourth-largest proved crude oil reserves, and the world's second-largest
natural gas reserves, according to the Energy Information Administration's
data.
"At present, we
produce somewhere around 800 million cubic meters per day and close to 900
million. By the end of this year we expect to produce somewhere around 1
billion cubic meters of gas," he added.
The country also produces
3.7 million barrels of oil per day, according to OPEC data.
In reply to a question of
the U.S. reapplying sanctions on Iran, Zamaninia affirmed that there is a
difference between rhetoric and deeds.
"In deed, the U.S. new
administration renewed waivers that they were supposed to do under the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] on May 19, which President Donald Trump
signed and renewed." he said.
This action was in line
with Trump's campaign rhetoric and "he renewed all the waivers necessary
on the basis of the JCPOA."
Zamaninia said the recent
agreement between Iran's Petropars, Total and Chinese CNPC was a very good
indication that from assessment of international oil companies, a return to the
era of sanctions is very unlikely.
Iran signed a new contract
at the beginning of July to develop Phase 11 of the world's largest gas field
development project, the South Pars gas field with French Oil Company, Total
and China National Petroleum Corporation.
Responding to a question on
the prospective pipeline project to take Iranian gas to Europe via Turkey,
Zamaninia said, "if it is viable, it will be something that we will be
taking quite seriously. Its viability is the question that we are now
considering,” he explained.
-Iran calls for foreign investment
The Manager of Iran’s Oil
and Gas Upstream Contracts, Reza Dehghan, also introduced current oil and gas
investment opportunities in Iran.
He detailed that Iran has
219 oil and gas fields, out of which 125 were oil fields with a capacity of 4
million barrels per day.
The country's 94 gas fields
have an 850 million standard cubic meters per day capacity, he said.
According to Dehghan,
Iran’s projected production for oil is 4.8 million barrels per day and 1,300
million standard cubic meters per day for gas.
Investments of $140 billion
are required to develop these fields, out of which two thirds will be provided
through foreign investment, he added.
Iran has signed its first
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with France’s Total in 2016, and subsequently
the country has signed one MOU every two weeks, he added.
(Anadolu Agency
)