TEHRAN - The managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) said the country’s natural gas production has reached 900 million cubic meters (equal to five million barrels of oil), Shana reported.

Speaking to the national TV on Tuesday, Hassan Montazer Torbati referred to the balancing of production and consumption in the country in recent years, saying: "Due to effective measures taken in recent years in South Pars, the country's daily gas production has reached 900 million cubic meters, which is equivalent to five daily million barrels of oil.”

Torbati also pointed to the 30-mcm increase in daily consumption of natural gas during the summer compared to the same period in the previous year and said: "Normally, a number of new cities and villages are connected to the country's gas network every year and this increase in consumption is partly due to this, but the main reason for this year’s unusual increase was the rise in hot water consumption for sanitary purposes due to the coronavirus pandemic.”

The deputy oil minister for gas affairs stated that most of the country's cities are now connected to the national gas network, noting that the number of villages connected to the gas network in the country has increased from 14,000 villages in the (Iranian calendar year) 1392 (ended on March 20, 2014) to about 32,000 villages in the current year, that means an average of 3,000 villages have been supplied with natural gas every year.

According to Torbati, of the country’s total gas production some 25 percent goes to household consumption, 37 percent is supplied to the power plants, 30 percent is used in the industry sector, four percent used as CNG and four percent is for other consumptions.

Over 93.6 percent of Iran’s population enjoys natural gas. Gas is supplied to 97 percent of people in the urban areas and 82 percent of people in the rural regions.

EF/MA