Tehran, Ashghabat Discuss Gas Cooperation

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov discussed economic ties and cooperation between the two neighboring countries in a phone conversation on Wednesday.

During the talk, the two chief executives exchanged views about Turkmen gas exports to Iran, Fars News Agency reported.

Iranian and Turkmen officials have in their recent meetings agreed to boost gas cooperation after launching a new joint gas pipeline project which is to increase Iran's gas imports from the Central Asian state.

In late November, Ahmadinejad and his Turkmen counterpart inaugurated the final section of a 1.2-billion-dollar gas pipeline between the two countries.

The 1024-km-pipeline has a daily capacity of 50 million cubic meters of gas. The 48-inch diameter pipeline allows Iran to swap Turkmen gas to other countries.

The first phase of the pipeline came on stream in January 2010 to deliver gas from Turkmenistan's Dauletabad field to Iran's Khangiran refinery.

The second pipeline which passes through Dauletabad, Sarakhs, and Khangiran regions was constructed after Iran felt extensive problems in supplying gas to its northern regions.

Boost in Gas Production
Iranian refineries increased their gas production by 5 percent in the last Iranian year (ended March 20), a senior gas official announced on Wednesday.

"We managed to increase gas production by about 5 percent last year compared with the previous year," Manager of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) for Coordination and Supervision of Production Mehdi Jamshidi Dana said during a visit to Iran's giant South Pars gas complex, Fars News Agency reported.

He mentioned that the refineries in Iran refined over 6 billion cubic meters of natural gas last year.

He also referred to the important position of the South Pars gas complex in boosting gas production, and said the complex supplies more than 40 percent of Iran's gas consumption needs.

South Pars gas field is shared by Iran and Qatar. Iran's reserves in the field is about 14 trillion cubic meters (46.2 trillion cubic feet) of gas, which accounts for about eight percent of total world reserves.

In June, four huge Iranian oil and gas firms signed contracts on developing the remaining phases of the giant South Pars gas field, including phases 13, 14, 19, 22, 23 and 24.

The Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran, Petropars, Iranian Petro Paidar, and Petrosina companies are due to implement the project for developing phases 13, 14, 19, 22, 23, and 24 of the South Pars Special Energy Zone.

Zawya