Speaking in Iranian Parliament’s open session on Tuesday, Bijan Zangane gave a report over the performance of the Ministry of Oil and its development programs, stating, “Increasing the production capacity of the joint oil and gas fields, avoiding crude sales, expanding gas supply, increasing gas exports, supporting domestic manufacturing and knowledge-based firms, as well as countering oil sanctions are among the programs on our agenda.”

Hailing the increase in production capacity of South Pars gas field in recent years, he said, “In 2005, the production in South Pars gas field was 140 million cubic meters that the amount hit 280 million cubic meters in 2015, and in the current year it has reached 700 million cubic meters.”

Referring to petrochemicals increase in order to avoiding crude sale, Zangane added that, “We had been able to increase the production of petrochemicals from 12 million tons in 1996 to 66 million tons in 2019 that the amount of which is expandable to about 100 million tons in 2021.”

Also, petrochemical products hit about $2 billion in 1996 that the rate of which jumped to $11 billion in 2013 and about $15 billion in 2019, he added.

Elsewhere in his remark, Zangane pointed out that Iran’s exports of oil products have doubled since 2005, however, there had been problems and restrictions due to the sanctions imposed by some foreign countries. 

Criticizing the United States and the Zionists efforts in imposing a full-scale economic war against the Iranian nation in all dimensions, Oil Minister asserted “As one of the largest exporters of oil products in the World, We are doing well in the fields of petrochemical exports.”

The Gore-Jask pipeline is  one of the solutions to circumvent sanctions, he said and added, and “This pipeline will be completed by the end of the current year ending in March 20, that through of which about one million barrels of crude oil will be exported.”