Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 17
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend:
If the current trend continues, Iran's domestic gas consumption will reach 2.5 billion cubic meters per day by 2025, head of Iran's Oil Industry Research Center Hamidreza Katouzian warned, the SHANA News Agency reported on Dec.17.
"Currently Iran's domestic consumption equals to the total consumption of industries in Europe," he explained.
He went on to note that the government and the oil ministry should pay more attention to this issue and try harder to optimize the country's gas consumption.
The spokesman of National Iranian Gas Company, Majid Boujarzadeh, said on Dec. 14 some 422 million cubic meters of gas was consumed in Iran on Dec. 13, which was a new record high for the year, the Mehr News Agency reported
"During the past year, some 1.5 million subscribers have been added to the country's national gas network, which has led to an increase of 600,000 cubic meters per day in the country's total consumption, he explained.
The managing director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC), Mostafa Kashkouli, said on Dec.13 that Iran power plants' fuel consumption has reached 135 million liters per day in the ninth calendar month (which started on November 23), which is considered a new record, the ISNA News Agency reported.
The country's power plants currently use fuels including gas oil and kerosene instead of gas. Iran's power plants need 140-150 million cubic meters of gas per day, but with the gas shortage the country is facing, the power plants have turned to consuming gas oil or kerosene.
According to Kashkouli, the average consumption of the plants was around 103 million liters in the mentioned period.
It was announced earlier this month that Iran's domestic gas consumption has reached nearly half a billion cubic meters per day.
The figure shows a 9 to 10 percent increase compare to the same period of time last year.
The increasing demand from households has caused a gas shortage in some parts of the country.
Iran's households and business units' consumption currently stands at 340-345 million cubic meters which is 15-20 percent more than the same period last year.
The Mehr News Agency previously reported that based on the data collected by Iran's Oil Ministry, the country needs over 700 million cubic meters of gas per day in the coming winter.
According to BP's latest yearly report, Iran's dried gas output is about 160 bcm, a little more than domestic consumption level.
Iran exported 7.5 bcm of gas to Turkey and imported 4.5 bcm of gas from Turkmenistan in 2012, according to BP's report.
Edited by C.N.