Hassan Montazer Torbati, speaking in a televised interview on Wednesday evening, emphasized the need to save natural gas consumption in the country, adding: “Iran is the second country in the world with the largest natural gas reserves. But this does not mean that we can consume as much as we want.”

He continued: "A reservoir like Assaluyeh is unique in the world, but we do not have more than one Assaluyeh and now we have maximized its production and all subsequent efforts are to keep production at this level. However, with the development of gas supply in the country, we will see an increase in consumption.”

The CEO of the National Iranian Gas Company predicted that the country’s natural gas production capacity would reach 800 mcm/d in the winter which had reached 700 mcm/d last summer.