Managing Director of National Iranian Gas Exports Company (NIGEC) Alireza Kameli described new gas export policies in the post-JCPOA era saying “the International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated a 26 percent share for natural gas in the world’s energy basket by the year 2035.”
He also noted that continuous economic development in Asia during coming decades would escalate global demand for energy by an average of 4.1 percent per year as gas will turn into one of the most popular and environmentally friendly types of fuel.
The official underlined that Iran, due to its unique geopolitical and geostrategic status in Southwest Asia, Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman in particular, plays an influential role in oil and gas industries of the world; “latest estimations by the end of 2015 revealed that Iran, with 34 trillion cubic meters of gas resources and more than 20 independent onshore and offshore gas fields, remains as the globe’s largest gas owner.”
The country’s daily gas production is scheduled to soar to more than one billion cubic meters in the next three years, said Kameli.
He further emphasized that Iran enjoys an advantage called ‘diversity of neighbors’ for being surrounded with 15 land and sea neighboring states; “indeed, gas cooperation, due to its long-term nature in Middle East as a highly sensitive spot, can bring about more synergy among regional nations by strengthening internal economy and developing economic infrastructure of countries.”
NIGED head said the plan to export more than 500 million cubic meters of gas through pipeline and LNG projects has been put on the agenda; accordingly, contracts for transferring gas to Turkey and Armenia through pipeline to be exchanged with electricity as well as gas swap with Azerbaijan Republic in addition to gas exports to Pakistan and Iraq have been inked and will soon become operational.
Moreover, negotiations are ongoing with Persian Gulf littoral states, including Kuwait and the UAE, over exports of Iranian gas as well as that the studies are being conducted for the project to transfer gas to Oman via submarine pipelines.
Alireza Kameli said Iran is also after shipping Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Europe; “in order to reach remote markets, liquefying and compression of natural gas have been put on the agenda.”
“Iran’s first LNG cargo will be deployed to global market within three years,” underscored the official adding “Iran, Pars and Persian LNG plants are also being implemented in order to reach a total output of more than 36 million tons per year.”
"Floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) for development of offshore natural gas resources in the Persian Gulf marks yet another objective pursued for exports of Iranian gas,” Kameli concluded.
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