TEHRAN – Energy Institute (EI), which is a UK-based company active in the energy sector, said in its latest annual report that Iran’s natural gas production has increased 2.5 times more than the global average over the past 10 years.

According to the EI report, natural gas production in Iran has been on an upward trend since 2011, and the U.S. sanctions have not been able to stop or reverse the growth of gas production in Iran. Between 2012 and 2022, natural gas production in Iran has grown by an average of 5.2 percent annually, which is more than 2.5 times the global average growth. The world's natural gas production has grown by an average of two percent per year during this period.

The report has said that world natural gas production registered a 0.2 percent drop in 2022. The total production of natural gas in the world decreased to 4,048 billion cubic meters last year.

Meanwhile, Iran's gas production grew by 1.1 percent in 2022 to reach 259 billion cubic meters.

According to the entity, the Islamic Republic is the world’s third biggest gas producer after Russia, and the U.S.; Iran accounted for 6.4 percent of the world's total natural gas production in 2022.

The United States is known as the largest natural gas producer in the world with the production of 978 billion cubic meters of gas and a 24.2 percent share of the world's total production, and Russia is ranked second with the production of 618 billion cubic meters and a 15.3 percent share of the world's gas production.

Most of Iran’s natural gas is produced from the country’s giant South Pars gas field which Iran shares with the neighboring Qatar in the Persian Gulf.

South Pars field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which, called South Pars, are in Iran’s territorial waters. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, called North Dome, are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.

The field is estimated to contain a significant amount of natural gas, accounting for about eight percent of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.

EF/MA