Ali-Reza Jarrahi, a former chief of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), made the remark on Wednesday in his address to a seminar on the future or gas.

Noting that the 21st century belongs to gas, Jarrahi said: “The most urgent task in the NIGC would be to establish an international section and acquiring an appropriate status for Iran in the market.”

He said NIGC shoulders a heavy responsibility, adding: “All country’s potentials have to be mobilized for that purpose. To that effect, the experiences of private and state-run companies must be used further.”

Jarrahi, who served as NIGC managing director in the 1980s, said two million barrels per day of energy have been lost in the production and consumption sectors in the Iranian year to March 2012.

“According to 2011 figures, Britain and Japan had respectively 0.08 and 0.09 percent of energy loss and India’s energy loss was 0.33 percent. But in Iran, it was 0.47 percent,” he said.

Jarrahi added that by reducing energy loss, Iran will be able to save one million barrels a day of crude oil.

Regarding gas trade, he said: “Today, 1,000 million cubic meters of gas is traded in the world, 700 million cubic meters of which is done through pipeline and 300 million cubic meters through LNG.”