TEHRAN – Iranian Minister of Petroleum Javad Owji said his ministry and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) have been seriously pursuing developing of joint fields over the course of the past 11 months.
Addressing a meeting with members of the Energy Committee of the Islamic Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, stating that in the first days of the 13th government, the country’s crude oil production capacity was about 3 million barrels per day at the beginning of the Raisi administration which has now reached 3.818 mbd.
He added: “In the field of gas condensates exports and crude oil sales, with active diplomacy in recent months, a new record has been set in the sale of crude oil and gas condensates compared to the last three years, showing a 40% growth. Also, in the field of gas export during the past year, Iran was faced with an average volume growth of 25%, for example, in the natural gas export sector to Iraq, we have raised exports by 43% compared to the year before; besides, unlike the past years when LPG was mostly burned by sending it to flare stacks, now with the efforts of our colleagues in the oil industry, it has faced a 15% increase in exports.”
Emphasizing that in the past year, according to the plans, Iran has repatriated the money from the export of crude oil, gas condensates and natural gas, and said: “Iran’s hard currency collection from the sale of these products is 2.5 times more than the figure in previous years. For example, in the gas export sector alone, $1.6 billion has been collected from gas dues from Iraq; therefore, in the budget of the calendar year of 1401, about $4 billion of resources from the export of natural gas have been envisaged, and in the first 4 months of this [calendar] year, we have fulfilled all our tasks in this field.”
Owji added: “The collection of hard currency from the sale of Iranian oil and gas has increased more than 3 times compared to the calendar year of 1399 and more than 2 times compared to 1398. Hard currency collection of oil revenues has increased up to 80% in the first 4 months of the current calendar year compared to the same period last year.”
Stating that the gas swap agreement with Turkmenistan and the Republic of Azerbaijan will be finalized soon, the Minister of Petroleum stated that according to the negotiations and understanding with Gazprom, it is planned to jointly supply gas and implement the gas export project to the countries of Oman and Pakistan.
He noted: “At the beginning of the 13th administration, there were 48 half-completed projects worth $13 billion in the Ministry of Petroleum, which were followed up strongly afterwards. As an example, the development project of phase 11 of South Pars which was left hamstrung because Total Energies had pulled out of the project. However, the project will become productive soon once Platform 12C of Phase 12 of the field is installed at the location of Platform 11B before the end of the current Iranian calendar year and the three refining trains of the onshore refinery of South Pars phase 14 development plan will also be put into operation during the same period.”
The Minister of Petroleum said: “By the end of this year, several petrochemical projects, such as Hengam Petrochemical Plant, worth about $2.6 billion, will also come on stream.”