TEHRAN, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Iran's oil and gas sector grew by more than 16 percent between March 21 and Dec. 21, 2023, the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year, the country's central bank chief said.
Mohammad-Reza Farzin, governor of the Central Bank of Iran, made the remarks while commenting on the country's 4.5 percent economic growth rate during the nine-month period, the Shana News Agency affiliated with the Iranian Oil Ministry reported on Friday.
He attributed the oil and gas sector's "high" growth rate to the successful implementation of key projects in recent years, stressing that the expansion of the country's crude oil production capacity this year had also prepared the ground in facilitating the growth.
Farzin said he believed that the sector would continue to grow in the next Iranian calendar year, which will start on March 20, on the back of the favorable investments in the domestic oil and gas industry, noting that the growth rate achieved by the oil and gas sector surpassed that of other sectors in the Iranian economy.
Since May 2018, the United States has imposed sanctions on Iran following its unilateral withdrawal from a nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed between Tehran and world powers in July 2015. These sanctions aim to restrict Iran's oil exports and financial transactions.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration affiliated with the Department of Energy, Iran possessed an estimated total of 209 billion barrels of oil reserves by the end of 2021, ranking the country as the world's third-largest holder of crude oil.
Iran's proven natural gas reserves were estimated at 1,203 trillion cubic feet as of December 2021, second only to Russia, according to the Oil & Gas Journal.
