Iran The World’s Number One Gas Reserves Holder

The UK-based energy giant, BP, has slashed its global natural gas reserves and placed Iran at the top of the worlds gas-rich countries.

In its Statistical Review of World Energy BP released that estimating for the first time in decades and sharply dropping Russia's classified holdings, Iran stands as the world’s top gas reserves holder with 33.6 trillion cubic meters.

The company downgraded Russia’s reserves estimate to 32.9 trillion cubic meters from 44.6 trillion cubic meters in last year's report, putting global proven gas reserves at 187.3 trillion cubic meters as of the end of 2012.

“Traditionally, countries of the former Soviet Union had different criteria than used elsewhere. So we used a conversion factor to convert that from those countries where we don't get direct data,” Christof Ruhl, BP's chief economist said.

The annual report also cut the estimate of gas reserves in the United States.

Meanwhile, BP also upgraded oil reserves for both Iran and Iraq by several billion barrels, estimating global proven reserves at 1,669 billion barrels at the end of last year, up slightly from 1,654 billion at the end of 2011.

Iran has been trying to boost its gas production by attracting foreign and domestic investments, especially in South Pars gas field.