TEHRAN- The managing director of Tehran Province’s Gas Company said that 98 percent of the province’s population enjoy natural gas at the present.

Saeed Tavakoli said, “Currently in Tehran province, 49 cities and 539 villages enjoy natural gas, thus, the coverage ratio of urban gas supply is about 99.9 percent and that of rural gas supply is about 97.5 percent in this province.”

He said that Tehran Gas Company established 463 kilometers of gas network, installed 12,636 urban and rural branches, and accepted 124,186 new subscribers in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20).

As previously announced by the managing director of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), 96 percent of the country’s population enjoy natural gas at the present.

Emphasizing the need to pay attention to the stability of the network, the creation and use of processes, Hasan Montazer Torbati has said: "Iran's 96 percent of population benefitting from natural gas is a unique statistic in the world."

“Now that everyone recognizes NIGC as a leading organization, our task is much heavier, because now with 96 percent of the country's population benefiting from gas, which is a unique statistic in the world, we should think more about network stability and processes and creation so that we will have a better and more dynamic organization”, the official further stressed.

Head of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC)’s Dispatching Department has announced that the country’s natural gas consumption in the previous Iranian calendar year 1399 increased eight percent compared to the preceding year (1398).

Some 233 billion cubic meters of natural gas was consumed in the country during the previous year while the figure stood at 216 billion cubic meters in 1398, IRNA reported, quoting Mohammadreza Jolaei as saying.

According to Jolaei, of the total gas consumption in the previous year, 122 billion cubic meters was consumed by domestic, commercial, and non-major industries, 24 billion cubic meters was the share of major industries and 66 billion cubic meters was allocated to power plants.

The official noted that during the past year, the consumption by domestic sector and power plants hit new record highs but NIGC managed to prevent any major blackouts even during the peak consumption periods.

The country’s power plants received an average of 167 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas per day in 1398, which reached 181 million cubic meters per day in the previous year, indicating a 5.1 billion increase in the power plants’ gas consumption.

According to Julaei, some 262 billion cubic meters of gas was injected into the national gas network in the previous year, registering a six-percent rise compared to 1398.

Mentioning the average gas consumption during the current Iranian calendar month (started on March 21), the official put the figure at 606 million cubic meters for Saturday, April 3.

Iran is currently producing over 810 mcm of natural gas on a daily basis which is mostly used inside the country for the domestic sector and also as fuel for the power plants and a small portion is also exported to neighboring countries like Iraq.

According to the NIGC managing director, of the total produced gas, 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.

Montazer Torbati stated that gas supply has been developed significantly in the cities and villages of the country over the past eight years due to the increase in gas production in the South Pars gas field (Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf).

MA/MA