NIOC ratifies $48 billion annual budget plan

TEHRAN,June 23(MNA) - The National Iranian Oil Company’s board of directors has ratified the current calendar year’s $48-billion budget plan. The Fars News Agency quoted NIOC Managing Director Ahmad Qalebani as saying that some $5 billion of the budget will be secured through internal resources and the rest through selling bonds and financing by National Development Fund and Central Bank. Some $22 billion of the budget will be channeled into the South Pars gas field development projects by Pars Oil and Gas Company, he noted. The NIOC’s managing director has already said that the country’s daily oil and gas outputs should amount to five million barrels and 1.47 billion cubic meters by 2015. Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said in August 2011 that the Iranian government should consider plans for the development of joint oilfields. The government should increase the budgets for the development of joint oilfields, Qasemi added. "The oil industry's infrastructure needs more than 500 trillion rials (about $41 billion) of investment to achieve objectives of the 20-Year Outlook Plan," Qasemi was quoted as saying."