Press TV - Iran says sanctions are hindering but not blocking plans for the country to supply nearly 10 percent of the world gas needs by 2025.

The managing director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) said Tuesday that Tehran plans to provide Europe with natural gas via a pipeline scheduled to become operational in 2014 with the name Persian Pipeline.

Iran sits on the world's second-largest gas reserves but currently has no net exports partly because Western oil and gas companies are halting investments in Iranian gas fields.

Meanwhile, both gas production and consumption have increased in the past two decades with natural gas often being re-injected into oilfields in Iran. According to FACTS Global Energy, a rise in domestic demand is expected to bring the country's natural gas exports to their lowest level.

"We cannot say that sanctions have not caused any problem for us but it has not stopped our work," Reuters quoted Reza Kasaizadeh as saying.

"We have many projects on the way and our plan is to cover around 8-10 percent of the global gas trade by the year 2025," he continued.

Iran exports around 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey per year. Supplies were shortly disrupted last winter due to a cold spell in Iran.

Kasaizadeh touched on the issue, saying that conditions this year will be better than last year because of a rise in gas production from Iran's South Pars field.

According to plans drawn up by Tehran, Turkey will be a key transit route for Iranian gas supplies to Europe via the pipeline. Gas will then be taken to Greece, Italy and the rest of Europe.

... Payvand News - 10/31/08 ... --