The South Pars field yields more than 80pc of Iran's production
Letter from the Middle East: Iran’s gas sector under pressure
Tehran’s gas industry faces two old and two new problems
The damage that US sanctions have wreaked on Iran’s oil exports is well-known. Less widely discussed are the effects on its gas industry. As negotiations in Vienna on the nuclear deal heat up, domestic gas is one of Tehran’s biggest concerns, and the country faces four challenges: two old and two new. Iran is holder of the world’s second largest gas reserves and is the third biggest producer of the fuel, but it also—remarkably for a medium-size country—behind only the US, Russia and China as a consumer. A mostly gasified power sector, the connection of even remote settlements to the grid, a cold winter climate, the rapid expansion of gas-based industry, and a legacy of subsidies and ineffici
Also in this section
4 March 2026
The US president has repeatedly promised to lower gasoline prices, but this ambition conflicts with his parallel aim to increase drilling and could be upended by his war against Iran
4 March 2026
With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed following US-Israel strikes and Iran’s retaliatory escalation, Fujairah has become the region’s critical pressure release valve—and is now under serious threat
3 March 2026
The killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in US–Israeli strikes marks the most serious escalation in the region in decades and a bigger potential threat to the oil market than the start of the Russia-Ukraine crisis
2 March 2026
A potential blockade of the Strait of Hormuz following the escalating US-Iran conflict risks disrupting Qatari LNG exports that underpin global gas markets, exposing Asia and other markets to sharp price spikes, cargo shortages and renewed reliance on dirtier fuels
