Tehran , Iran , Nov. 21
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangneh said that some 44 billion cubic meters of gas will be added to the country's total output in the next Iranian calendar year (to start March 21, 2015).
"The country's output will be increased by 20 million cubic meters by the end of current year," he said, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported on Nov. 21.
The minister went on to note that Iran's gas consumption in the current year is 100 million cubic meters more than previous year.
"Iran will reduce its liquid fuel consumption in the next three years," he added.
"Currently some 600 million cubic meters of gas per day is being delivered to the National Iranian Gas Company," Zanganeh said.
Iran faced severe gas shortage in the previous winter. The country was forced to cut gas supply to industrial units and petrochemical complexes on several occasions.
Houshang Taheri, an official with the National Iranian Gas Company, predicted on Nov. 2 that Iranian households' gas consumption would reach 350 million cubic meters per day in cold days.
He went on to note that the households' consumption was around 120 million cubic meters per day at the end of September.
The Managing Director of Iran's Natural Gas Storage Company Masoud Samivand said on October 29 that the country is able to pump 20 million cubic meters of gas per day from Sarajeh and Shoorijeh gas storage facilities to the country's national gas network in cold months.
"If the temperatures continue to drop, the country will start extracting gas from storage facilities in two weeks."
Samivand said on October 27 that some 2 billion cubic meters of gas have been stored in the country's storage facilities.
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 gas from Turkmenistan in 2012, according to BP's report.