TEHRAN – Following selection of the qualified contractor, new sites for storing natural gas produced from the central Iran oilfields are expected to be identified by next year.

An Iranian contractor company has been chosen to identify new natural gas storage sites and it has undertaken to complete its site selection operations within the current year, a report quoted Abdol-Hossein Samari, the managing director of the National Iranian Natural Gas Storage Company as saying on Sunday.

He referred to Talkheh region as one of the candidate storage sites and said that since the area was located in Talkheh National Park, the company was waiting for the entry license to be issued by the Department of the Environment.

He also commented on the latest developments at Saracheh Natural Gas Field and said that production from parts of the field would begin in the next year (Iran’s New Year, starts March 21, 2007). The official predicted the preliminary output from the field to stand at around 4.5 million cubic meters per day.