Iran�s daily natural gas output has reached over 1 billion cubic meters (bcm), according to a senior official in the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

NIOC�s director of production control Hormoz Qalavand said on Wednesday that rich gas output from 23 Iranian gas fields had reached a total of 1.04 bcm per day.

Qalavand said some 980 million cubic meters (mcm) per day of sweet gas are currently supplied to the Iranian natural gas pipeline network which is controlled by the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC).

The figures come a day after NIOC officials said they had managed to complete the overhaul of a key natural gas liquids (NGL) project in southwestern Iran to allow the country to increase its natural gas output by some 10 mcm per day.

It also comes amid growing demand for natural gas for heating in Iran as temperatures have dropped to below zero in many parts of the country.

Iran is the third largest natural gas producer in the world after the United States and Russia. A bulk of Iran�s gas output, around 600 mcm per day, is consumed by households and businesses while some 200 mcm per day of gas is supplied to power plants and industries in the country.

Iran also supplies large volumes of natural gas through pipelines to Iraq and Turkey while it is also part of a swap agreement with Turkmenistan under which the NIGC receives gas from the country's northeastern borders�and delivers the same amount�to Azerbaijan via borders in northwest.

 

 

By PRESS TV�