Iran's gas exports surpass $3.5bn

Managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Javad Oji announced Friday that the value of Iran's gas exports in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2013) exceeded $3.5bln.Oji made the remarks on the sidelines of the 18th International Oil, Gas, Refining and Petrochemical Exhibition currently underway here in Tehran."We exported 8.4bln cubic meters of gas, worth $3.5 billion, during last year," Oji said.Earlier this month, Oji announced that "Iran plans to increase the volume of its gas supplies to the neighboring countries to 100 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) in 2014"."By signing new deals to export gas to Turkey and Iraq, the capacity of Iran's gas exports will increase from 35 million cubic meters to nearly 100 mcm/d next year," Oji said.He noted the gas exports to neighboring countries have not been halted even for a day during last year.Last year, Oji announced that Iran's gas exports will reach 180 mcm/d in the next four years."Over the fifth five year development plan to 2015, 12 new phases of the South Pars Gas Field will be coming online, of which four phases have been allocated to LNG," Oji said according to the oil ministry's website, addressing the 25th World Gas Conference in Malaysia.He went on to say that Iran's gas production capacity will reach 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas per day in 2016, of which 180 million cubic meters will be exported through gas pipelines and LNG carrier vessels.Elsewhere in his remarks, the NIGC managing director noted that Iran ranks the second in the region in view of the length of gas grid, adding that the Islamic Republic of Iran with the production capacity of 600 million cubic meters of gas per day and holding advanced infrastructures is capable of transferring 750 million cubic meters of gas per day.Oji pointed out to the country's 35 thousand kilometers of high pressure gas grid, and said the infrastructure enables Iran to transfer a big volume of gas from its borders with Azerbaijan Republic and Turkmenistan to Turkey and the Persian Gulf.He further noted that the Islamic Republic of Iran exports gas to Turkey, Iraq and Armenia while swapping gas with Azerbaijan Republic.Iran, which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, has been trying to enhance its gas production by increasing investments in the energy sector.The Islamic Republic has 137.6 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, and 29.61 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves.