Iran celebrates 50th year of gas industry
. Author: mbncom
Iran has now been producing gas commercially for exactly 50 years, and output today has reached 255 billion cubic meters per year which is 70 percent of the country's primary energy demand.
When it started, in 1976, it managed 6.9 mcm/d and the figure had risen ten times by 1982 to finally reach 700 mcm/d as of now — 100 times more than 40 years ago. However, Iran — for all its world-beating 34 trillion cubic meters gas reserves — is still a net gas importer, naturalgaseurope.com wrote.
Last year, global gas output reached 3.6 trillion cubic meters, of which 1 tcm were exported. Iran's share of output and net exports was 7.2 percent and zero respectively. It exported 8.4 bcm to Turkey and imported up to 9 bcm from Turkmenistan.
From the start of oil extraction 108 years ago until August 1, 1967, all associated gas was flared. For the first time, Iran built an 1100-km pipeline from the south to the north and started exporting gas to the Soviet Union in 1972. But after seven years, during which Iran exported 72 bcm — the deal was cancelled.
In 1974, Iran also reached an agreement to export gas to the European Union through Soviet Union infrastructure for 20 years, but this plan was never realized.
The country is again preparing to take share in global gas markets, including the EU. Iran plans to invest $310 billion in the gas sector, of which $137 billion would be upstream, by 2026.
Director of National Iranian Gas Company for International Affairs Azizollah Ramazani outlined the country's plans to export gas on July 25, all of it going by pipeline and mostly to its neighbors for the next five years and reaching 68 bcm per year.
Iran is preparing to increase gas output by 125 bcm per year to 385 bcm per year by 2021. The figure would reach 475 bcm by 2025, enabling Iran to boost exports.
For now, Iran has already signed deals with Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and Oman to export a total 46 bcm per year, but only delivers to Turkey, while the country plans to export a limited amount of gas (5-7 mcm per day) to Iraq in August.
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