Iran's gas processing and production capacity would climb to 600 Mln cm/d by the end of the Iranian year (March 22, 2009), Managing director of National Iranian Gas Company says.

According to Shana News Agency, Reza Kassaeizadeh in the inauguration ceremony of the third Azerbaijan Gas pipeline in Saveh said, "The country's capacity currently stands at 447 Mln cm/d" explaining, "due to the projects implemented in the downstream section, the capacity would rise to 600 Mln cm/d."

He added that some 670 cities, 5700 villages have been linked to natural gas supply network of the country. He continued there are 28,000 km of high pressure and over 150,000 km of provincial gas networks all over the country.

Launching phases 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the giant South Pars gas field, the official said, Iran's gas processing and production capacity would rise by 150 Mln cm/d to 600 Mln cm/d.