The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 28th Iran International Oil, Gas, ‎Refining and ‎Petrochemical Exhibition (Iran Oil Show 2024) in Tehran on Friday.

It is included in the Seventh Development Plan that Iran should become a regional hub, and for this purpose, a volume of 40 billion cubic meters (bcm) for export and a volume of 20 mcm for the import of gas have been targeted.

“In the recent meeting of prime ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), creating a regional energy hub at the initiative of the Islamic Republic of Iran was raised which was included in the final official statement,” he stated.

Along with sweet gas trade, we must also prepare a plan for importing sour gas, sweetening it and re-exporting it, because if this issue is neglected, other rivals will grab our market share, Seyyedi added.

$104b Investment for Gas Imbalance Removal

Speaking at the meeting, Omid Shakeri, the Director General of Policy, Strategic Planning and Energy Management of the Ministry of Petroleum said to remove gas imbalance, nearly $104 billion should be invested by the Iranian year of 1410, which means an annual investment of $13 billion.

With this amount of investment, it is predicted that the gas production will increase by 275 million cubic meters per day, which will be realized from the development of new gas fields, the implementation of the National Pressure Boosting Plan in order to maintain production in South Pars as well as the collection of associated gases, while the gas storage will reach 130 million cubic meters per day, Shakeri explained.

“Becoming a regional gas hub is necessary and possible for Iran, and in order to achieve this goal, we must invest more in the production sector and carry out consumption optimization projects more seriously,” he emphasized.

During the last 20 to 30 years, with the assumption that the competitive advantage of our country’s economy is access to abundant and cheap energy sources, Iran’s industrial strategy has been based on the development of highly energy-intensive industries, Shakeri criticized.