A Critical Evaluation of Iranian Natural Gas Resources

Nowadays, the world energy focus is shifting towards natural gas for
power and heat generation as a substitute for coal and oil. Approximately 60% of
world natural gas reserves are mainly concentrated in Russia, Iran, and Qatar. Iran
will play a main role in the supply of world natural gas demand, if its natural gas
fields can be developed effectively. In spite of huge natural gas reserves, Iran’s natural
gas production has not grown sufficiently.
This study summarizes Iranian natural gas reserves, production, transportation
and recent geopolitical events relating to the Iranian natural gas industry and how the
Iranian government politics in development of its natural gas industry offer important
signs to understand Iran’s view on its natural gas resourcemanagement and to predict
Iran’s action in the future. The aim of this study is to discuss the problems and possible
solutions to the problems of the Iranian natural gas industry.
Keywords geopolitics, Iran, natural gas, production, transportation