The Iranian Parliament allowed the Oil Ministry to export surplus gas to Europe and neighboring countries in the Iranian year which starts on March 20.
The approval is a part of the budget bill for the next fiscal year which is being debated in the Parliament.
Based on the bill, the Oil Ministry should take steps to export gas to the EU and neighboring countries, which are not buying oil from Iran, employing the potentials of the private sector if the gas output exceeds 1,000 million cubic meters per day.
Iran's gross gas output currently stands at 820 million cubic meters per day, while its commercial gas output reaches 700 million cubic meters per day.
The Parliament approved general outlines of the national budget bill for the next fiscal year on February 21.
According to the draft budget bill, the price of a barrel of oil is calculated at $50 for the next fiscal year. Some 20 percent of the national oil revenue will be channeled to the National Development Fund.
The draft has envisaged Iran’s revenue from oil exports at 1,100 trillion rials (about $33.3 billion).
Iran, which has the world's largest natural gas reserves in the world, strives to sell natural gas in the European markets soon.
However, the country lacks necessary export infrastructure to meet its gas sales. There is no transit gas pipeline linking Iran and the EU.
The country may either construct new pipeline via Turkey or build a connector to the Trans-Anatolian pipeline — TANAP (Turkish leg of the Southern Gas Corridor).
Head of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Hamidreza Araqi said earlier that Iran wants to raise its share in the global gas trade from the current one percent to 10 percent, increasing gas export, including LNG, up to about 60-80 bcm by 2021.
