BERLIN, April 14. /ITAR-TASS/. Tehran is seeking to play a bigger role on the world gas market, an Iranian senior government official said.
“As of today, Iran has the biggest gas reserves in the world,” Iranian Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh said in an interview with Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper on Monday.
“Now we’re working on a large-scale project to build a gas pipeline that will supply the ‘blue fuel’ to the Turkish border. Then we will be able to export gas to Western countries,” he said.
Iran has signed contracts with Swiss and Spanish companies, as well as with Royal Dutch Shell, but could not carry them out because of the international sanctions, Nematzadeh said.
“We don’t want to compete with Russia. We know that Europe’s demand for natural gas is growing, and we just want to get our share (of the market),” he said.
“Iran may become Europe’s reliable and long-term partner. We have gas reserves and plans for cooperation,” Nematzadeh said.
Iran is one of the leading gas producing countries in the world. By 2016 the average daily gas production rate in Iran will increase up to 1.2 billion cubic meters with the commissioning of 12 new South Pars fields. Overall proved reserves stand at 33.6 trillion cubic of meters.