February 28, 2020
The fact that tiny Qatar has far outproduced Iran for many years has been a major embarrassment for the regime, which has been trying to mightily to bypass the Qataris, who announced about two years ago that they had stopped expanding production.
The Qataris don’t seem to care who produces more. But in Iran, there is a widespread fear that wherever Iran shares a gas or oilfield with a neighbor, that neighbor is trying to suck out all the oil and gas before Iran can get its share, making the issue of production levels important politically.
Speaking to state broadcasting February 4, Zanganeh highlighted the rise in gas extraction from joint fields with neighboring countries and said, “In South Pars, we had a brilliant performance. Our production there increased very much and we were able to reach 670 million cubic meters (mcm) in the current year, which is 2.4 times higher compared to 280 mcm in 2013,” he said.
“Fortunately, our daily production of gas has overtaken Qatar’s,” the oil minister boasted.
Back in September, Zanganeh said Iran’s gas extraction from the South Pars field would reach 750 mcm per day by Now Ruz.