TEHRAN - The Iranian oil minister boasted about his ministry’s success in increasing the production of unprocessed natural gas after identifying the bottlenecks.

Addressing a parliamentary session on Tuesday, Mohsen Paknejad said the Oil Ministry has successfully identified bottlenecks in the upstream sector of the petroleum industry after the Iranian administration took office in August.

After extensive planning, the Oil Ministry managed to increase the average daily production of raw gas by over 25 million cubic meters, he said.

The minister also noted that the daily production of Mazut (heavy fuel oil) and diesel fuel in the oil refineries has risen by around 5 million liters to ensure a steady supply to the power plants.

Earlier this month, the director of production coordination and supervision of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) said Iranian gas refineries are currently producing 840 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas per day.

Speaking to the press on the sidelines of a visit to Ilam Refinery, Mohammad-Reza Jolaei, said natural gas accounts for more than 75 percent of the country's energy portfolio.

“Natural gas refineries are an industrial complex consisting of process units, facilities, storage, etc., which process the received sour gas to be used in domestic, commercial, industrial, export, etc.”

EF/