Iran's oil minister Ghozam Hossein Nozari said Monday the country planned to double its gas production to 400 billion cubic meters a year by 2025.
"We have reached production of about 500 million cubic meters per day this year which puts us in fourth position in the world," Nozari told an energy conference in Geneva.
Iran, the second largest oil exporter in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, also has the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia.
Nozari said the country had "28 trillion cubic melters of gas reserves, with plans to increase gas production by the year 2025 to 400 billion cubic melters per year."
Western oil companies have refused to invest in Iran because of the controversy over its nuclear energy program and Tehran has increasingly turned to Asian companies.
The Iranian state broadcaster reported Saturday that a Chinese consortium had signed a multi-billion dollar deal to produce liquefied natural gas in the Islamic republic's South Pars field.