TEHRAN (Iran News) –Iran registered “huge volumes” of gas swap in the previous Iranian calendar year of 1401 (ended March 20, 2023), showing a 358 percent hike as compared to the last year’s corresponding period, the chief executive of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) said.
Speaking in an interview with Fars News Agency on Saturday, Majid Chegeni stated that Iran’s gas export volume also showed a 10 percent rise in the previous year.
The deputy oil minister pointed to the performance of his company in the field of natural gas trade and added that the export of natural gas registered a 10 and 79 percent growth in 2022 in terms of volume and value respectively as compared to a year earlier.
The amount of swapped gas has registered a 358 and 530 percent hike in 2022 in terms of volume and value respectively as compared to the same period of last year, Chegeni highlighted.
The NIGC imported natural gas from Turkmenistan under a swap deal inked with SOCAR Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2022, he said, adding, “While increasing natural gas trade with Turkmenistan, the NIGC succeeded in restoring gas import from Turkmenistan into the country.
This huge volume of natural is swapped from Turkmenistan to the Republic of Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan, he noted.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the deputy oil minister referred to the export of byproducts of natural gas and noted that Iran’s export of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) registered a 32 and 57 percent hike in terms of volume and value respectively as compared to 2021.
It is expected that the volume of gas imported from Turkmenistan under the gas swap deal inked with SOCAR Company would increase more than 70 percent in 2023 as compared to a year earlier, the NIGC chief highlighted.
Back in November 2022, an Oilprice.com report stated that Iran has been ramping up its natural gas production with the aim of increasing exports to global markets as the demand in Europe for natural gas is surging ahead of winter.
“Iran last week made it clear that it is ramping up its gas production operations at the supergiant South Pars natural gas field, with a focus on its controversial Phase 11,” the report read.
South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf water, is divided into 24 standard phases of development in the first stage. Most of the phases are fully operational at the moment.
The huge offshore field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, called North Dome, are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.
