Iran's gas refining capacity to hit 1bcm by 2016

Iran's natural gas refining capacity will hit a high record in less than three years, a senior trade official announced. "The country's natural gas refining capacity will climb to one billion cubic meters (bcm) per day by March 2016," Coordination and Supervision Director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Mehdi Jamshidi Dana said Wednesday. He noted that Iran's gas refining capacity hit 520mcm in the last Iranian year (ended March 20). "Fajr-e Jam and Parsian refineries stand first and second in terms of gas production, with (shares of) 21 and 17 percent (in the country's gas output), respectively," Jamshidi Dana said. On Monday, Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Javad Oji announced that the value of Iran's annual gas exports will exceed $10bln in the near future. "It is anticipated that with the increase in the volume, revenues from gas exports will surpass $10bln per year," Oji said. He noted that Iran currently gains $3.5bln per year from export of gas to the neighboring countries. Last month, Oji announced that "Iran plans to increase the volume of its gas supplies to the neighboring countries to 100 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) in 2014". "By signing new deals to export gas to Turkey and Iraq, the capacity of Iran's gas exports will increase from 35 mcm/d to nearly 100 mcm/d next year," Oji said. He noted the gas exports to neighboring countries have not been halted even for a day during last year. Last year, Oji announced that Iran's gas exports will reach 180 mcm/d in the next four years. Iran, which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, has been trying to enhance its gas production by increasing investments in the energy sector. The Islamic Republic has 137.6 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, and 29.61 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves.