Addressing parliament, Qasemi said on Sunday hydrocarbon will remain the main source of meeting energy needs in coming decades and despite efforts by industrial countries to replace it with alternative energies, it will remain the cheapest source of energy in the world in coming decades.

He told the parliament that countries located in the Middle East sit atop 50 percent of oil and 40 percent of gas reserves of the world adding accumulated recoverable oil and gas reserves of the country are equivalent to 366 billion barrels, which ranks Islamic Republic of Iran in first place in the world in view of extractable reserves. Iran also ranks third and fourth in view of gas and oil production respectively, he continued

Elsewhere in his remarks, Qasemi said that exploratory operations in border areas to discover shared fields is our priority that is expected to be completed up to the end of fifth five year development plan in 2015.

Elaborating on development of shared oil and gas fields, the official said development of these fields is another priority adding based a plan presented to Supreme Leader, we have decided to determine the statues of current shared fields before the end of current Iranian calendar year to March 2013.

Late last year development contracts of 12 shared oil and gas fields were signed which include onshore and offshore fields, according to Qasemi.

Referring to ongoing projects in South Pars Gas Field, which is a shared field, the minister said: Based on a right decision made by the government, fortunately construction work is underway in all the field’s phases expressing hope 8 new phases to come online in next two years which will increase gas production capacity of the country by 250 million cubic meters per day.  

Referring to oil reserves, Qasemi noted that in place oil reserves of the country amounts to 600 billion barrels of which 25 percent could be extracted announcing by enhancing recovery rate by just one percent, another six billion barrels will be added to recoverable reserves equivalent to five year of oil production at current levels.

He stated that 78 percent of the residential areas in the country have access to gas supply; adding 99 percent of the cities and 57 percent of the rural areas enjoy gas services.

In connection to refining capacity, the official noted that oil refining capacity of the country stands at 1.7 million barrels per day at present which is planned to rise to 2.5 million barrels per day up to the end of fifth five year development plan in 2015.‘We will be able to export 1654 million liters of oil products at the end of fifth five year development plan’, the official noted.  

Having said that the first phase of removing energy subsidies succeeded to curb wasteful energy consumption in the country, the minister noted that the process will continue in the future by moving toward real prices.

Petrochemical industry is one of our advantages due to creating value-added, Qasemi said adding petrochemical production capacity stands at 54 million tons per year now which is slated to rise to 100 million tons per year in next years.