Iranian gas gets going

Iran is making good use of its surging natural gas production domestically, but exports remain constrained

Iran’s production of oil and gas has been hit hard by sanctions over the past two decades. Yet the impacts have diverged more recently: while oil has plunged, Iran’s gas production and exports have boomed. Sustaining these gas exports has become key. Despite holding the world’s second-largest reserves, for years gas output fell behind schedule. It was hampered by sanctions that made obtaining equipment difficult and, in the absence of international investors, by mismanagement by local entities. Exports to Turkey rose gradually from 7.8bn m³ in 2010 to 7.9bn m³ in 2018, but were bedevilled by price disputes and winter cut-offs when Iran ran short of gas for its own population. A host of hopef