Iran said on Sunday that it has returned the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) back on the list of key energy projects.
Rokneddin Javadi, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), told reporters that Iran will launch its first LNG project before April 2018, adding that the project will have an annual capacity of 10 million tons.
Iran previously pursued three key LNG projects – Iran LNG, Pars LNG and Persian LNG. However, they were abandoned over the past few years as technicalities emerged – mostly those pertaining to US-led sanctions against investments in Iran’s energy projects.
Javadi also told reporters Iran is negotiating with European companies over the exports of natural gas.
He said that Iran plans to export gas to Europe through pipeline or LNG but did not specify whether the planned LNG exports to Europe would be provided from the same project that will come on stream in 2018.
The NIOC chief further emphasized that Iran expects its natural gas production capacity to increase by 7 billion cubic meters per day (bcm/d) once the new projects that will be introduced to investors in a conference in late October become operational.
He added that the new projects will also increase Iran’s oil production by 2 million barrels per day (bpd).