Iran’s gas export to Turkey hit records

Iran’s deputy oil Minister has said that the Islamic Republic’s natural gas exports to its northwestern neighbor Turkey have hit records.

“Iran has so far this year exported an average of more than 30 million cubic meters (mcm) of natural gas per day to Turkey,” Javad Oji told Mehr news agency on Friday.

The new figure shows a daily increase of 10 to 11 million cubic meters this year, compared to last year, when Iran exported an average of 21 million cubic meters of natural gas each day, he added.

Oji, who is also the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company, said Iran is ready to increase its export rates by 50 percent due to the freezing winter weather across Europe.

Earlier this month, Oji said Iran’s daily production of natural gas reached 600 million cubic meters this year.

The Iranian official went on to note that the country’s power plants receive gas from eight phases of the South Pars gas field.

“This level of production has been realized due to the diligence of the country’s oil and gas experts, while before the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, joint gas fields were not exploited,” he said on December 10.

The official also predicted that Iran’s gas production is expected to double within four years.

Iran has the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia and is Turkey’s second-biggest supplier after Moscow.