Hassan Montazer Torbati said on Monday, November 9, at a ceremony to launch 181 gas supply projects in Fars province, southern Iran, said: "Increasing production in South Pars has been one of the supports for the development of the country's gas industry.”

He said beck in 2013, Iran consumed 34 billion liters of liquid fuel per year which has been replacing with natural gas since then and is hoped to be fully replaced by natural gas by 2024.

Torbati stated that the annual consumption of this 34 billion liters of fuel cost about 17 billion dollars, adding that this cost was gradually reduced and by 2019, about 11 billion dollars of revenue was obtained from this replacement.

He added: "This revenue will reach about 28 billion dollars by March 2024, and this increase will continue after that."

The NIGC CEO further told reporters that the discovery of a new gas field in Turkey had no effect on its gas contract with Iran.

He said: “This issue has no effect on the current contract for Iranian gas exports to Turkey. We must see how the Turkish market would be impacted by the demand in the country. The amount discovered is not a significant figure for their total needs, and we hope to start negotiations on a contract extension soon.”

Regarding Iran’s gas exports to Afghanistan, the official said the initial plan for exporting gas to Afghanistan has been prepared by NIGC. The project will be developed by the private sector.