TEHRAN – Iranian Energy Minister Javad Oji said on Monday that the country’s Supreme Economic Council has defined new projects with a total investment of $36 billion to improve energy consumption efficiency in various sectors, Shana reported.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Iran Energy Efficiency Conference (IREEC 2023), Oji said: “If we work well in optimizing consumption, most of the country’s energy imbalance will be compensated.”

The imbalance between supply and demand in the oil and gas industry is an important issue, whose resolution requires increasing production and optimizing consumption, the minister stressed.

Oji put the country’s current crude oil production at 3.19 million barrels per day (bpd), saying that Iran’s oil production capacity, however, is about 3.850 million bpd.

He further put the country’s total natural gas production at over 1,000 million cubic meters.

Mentioning the completion of $15 billion worth of semi-finished oil projects in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), Oji said: “Over $12 billion worth of semi-finished projects will also be put into operation this year, which will increase the production of gas, oil, and petroleum products.”

EF/MA