Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 6
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) delivered 111.57 billion cubic meters of gas to various sectors during the first 260 days of the current Iranian fiscal year, which began on March 21, an official said.
Mojtaba Sheikh Bahaei, the deputy head of the NIGC said that delivering gas to various sectors including households, commercial sector, industry and power plants indicates an increase by 11 billion cubic meters compared to the same period of preceding year, the official SHANA news agency reported Dec. 6.
Sheikh Bahaei said the NIGC delivered 39.525 billion cubic meters of gas to the country's power plants during the period, 7.9 billion cubic meters more compared to preceding year.
He said that over 48.24 billion cubic meters of gas was delivered to the household and commercial sectors as well as small industry.
The figure increased by 2.88 billion cubic meters compared to the same days of last year, Sheikh Bahaei added.
The official said the national gas company supplied the country's major industries with 23.804 billion cubic meters of gas, 673 million cubic meters more year-on-year.
In the previous fiscal year, Iran delivered around 36 billion cubic meters of gas to its power plants and consumed around 27 billion liters of mazut and gas oil to generate electricity.
But the officials announced that they will increase gas delivery to power plants to 42 billion cubic meters in the current year.
The Islamic Republic faced severe gas shortages last winter. In addition to cutting the gas supply to power plants, which led to burning $30 billion of liquid fuels, the Iranian government had to decrease gas delivery to petrochemical plants from 1,236 million to 530 million cubic feet.
That caused a drop in the petrochemical production by 7.5 million metric tons during the last fiscal year (ended on March 21).
Iran hopes to handle the possible gas shortage in winter via boosted imports from the neighboring Turkmenistan.
It should be noted that the Islamic Republic holds 33.6 trillion cubic meters of proved gas reserves, sharing 18 percent of total global gas reserves which puts the country in the top of the world's gas holders list.
However, the lack of proper technology and investment led to long-term delays in implementation of gas production projects.