Azernews.Az

An Iranian Oil Ministry official says 215 high-priority projects with a cost of 261 billion dollars are being implemented in the Islamic Republic, Trend news agency reported referring to Press TV.

Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr, the deputy oil minister for planning and supervision over hydrocarbon resources, made the remarks in an interview with the Oil Ministry's official news agency, SHANA, on Monday.

Khojasteh-Mehr stated that the National Iranian Oil Company is engaged in 109 projects, at a cost of 170 billion dollars, some of which have been completed, and to complete the rest by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2010-2015), 19 million dollars more must be invested.

He noted that the National Iranian Gas Company is implementing 20 plans, costing 15 billion dollars, the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company has 17 projects costing 25 billion dollars, and the National Petrochemical Company is implementing 69 projects at cost of 48 billion dollars.

On December 13, the secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said the latest figures showed that Iran had not reduced its oil production.

Abdullah al-Badri stated that the figures provided by Iran showed that the country was producing about 3.7 million barrels per day.

Iran has 137.6 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, and 29.61 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves. It has the world's fourth largest oil reserves and second largest gas reserves.