Azernews.Az

A major natural gas-producing country like Iran has lots of liquid hydrocarbons, a US researcher told Azerbaijan`s Trend news agency.

Patrick Clawson, Research Director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, was commenting on the latest OPEC report on Iran`s natural oil and gas production, which is different from the statistics that Iran provides.

A few days ago National Iranian Oil Company said the country`s average crude oil production hit 3.9 million barrels per day, and the figure is forecast to reach 4 million barrels per day.

OPEC says Iran`s average crude oil production is 3.42 mbpd, instead of 3.9 mbpd. Iran is OPEC`s second largest oil producer and the fifth largest crude exporter in the world.

In February, OPEC said, Iran`s oil production decreased by 37,000 bpd compared to January. According to the report, Iran`s oil production declined to 3.424 million bpd in February. Iran`s oil output in December 2011 was 3.533 mbpd and the figure decreased to 3.461 mbpd in January 2012.

Iran said some 4.5 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons including condensates (400,000 bpd) and crude oil (3.9 mbpd) have been produced in the current Iranian calendar year.

``Since OPEC quotas are only on crude oil, it means the liquid hydrocarbons are not included there,`` Clawson said. ``Any country like Algeria or Iran which produces a lot of natural gas will have a lot of liquid hydrocarbons, because such liquids are always present in natural gas.``

Clawson added that the U.S. is in similar position, as a very large part of the U.S. liquid hydrocarbon production is not crude oil.

Regarding Iran, Clawson noted that compared to numerous countries` statistics, Iran`s output is quite normal. He did not specify however, which other hydrocarbons the Islamic Republic produces, as there are about 200,000 tons of liquid hydrocarbons remaining, according to the Iranian National Oil Company.

Iran shares oil and gas fields with most of its neighbors including Iraq, Kuwait and Persian Gulf littoral countries such as Qatar and Oman. In recent years, Iran has been gradually moving towards becoming a major exporter of refined oil and petrochemical products with significant success.