An Iranian official said the country plans to increase its natural gas exports to 200 million cubic meters (mcm) per day in the next four years.
Speaking to Shana, Director for international Affairs of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Azizollah Ramezani said by increasing the production capacity of new phases of the South Pars Gas Field in southern Iran, gas exports to neighboring countries can be raised to 200 mcm per day.
Pointing to the talks with some neighboring countries on gas exports, he said, "We have been in talks with Afghanistan since last year, which will also continue this year and we hope that they would yield results soon."
South Pars Gas Field, whose development has been divided into 28 phases, is located in the Persian Gulf straddling the maritime border between Iran and Qatar. It is estimated that the Iranian section of the field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of condensates in place.
South Pars is part of a wider gas field that is shared with Qatar. The larger field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, of which 3,700 square kilometers lie in Iran's territorial waters (South Pars) in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, referred to as the North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.
Iran's total gas exports reached over 9.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2014, according to the 64th Edition of the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
In the statistical review released earlier this month, the BP classed Iran as the world's top gas reserves holder with 33.8 trillion cubic meters.