NIGC’s delay results in $1 billion loss for Iran

Azerbaijan, Baku, Jun.9 / Trend F.Milad/

National Iranian Gas Company's waste of time in building a pipeline to transfer gas from Kish Island to Qeshm power plant resulted in $1 billion loss to the country, statistics show.

Some 6 years ago, a pipeline was built to transfer collected associated gas from Siri to Kish. The NIGC planned to build a pipeline to transfer the gas to a power plant in Qeshm Island, but its delay resulted in $1 billion loss to the country's gas sector, the Pananews News Agency reported.

Since 2006, some 35 billion cubic feet of associated gas has been transferred from Siri to the Kish power plant, equaling $500 million in gas oil consumption per day.

Large amounts of natural gas, as much as the output of two phases of the South Pars gas field, is burnt and lost, showing imprudence among Iranian officials who do not adopt efficient approaches in developing the gas field, the Fars News Agency reported on May 9.

Associated gases can bring benefits for the country, but they are flared up and burden huge losses to the nation, instead.

Some 40 million cubic meters of associated gas in oilfields are burnt daily, the report says.

Iran has allocated $2 billion to collect associated gas at Kharg and Bahregan oil regions, the deputy oil minister for engineering affairs said in November 2011.

Hamdollah Mohammadnejad told the Shana news agency that the sum will be spent to collect 17 million cubic meters of associated gas.

He added that different projects, worth around $500 million, have been developed for collecting up to 99 percent of associated gases.

Some $15 billion cubic meters of associated gas is burnt at Iran's oilfields, bringing the country around $3 billion of loss annually.

Since 2001, Iran's annual imports of gas have been more than exports by nearly 71 billion cubic meters on the average, the Pana news agency reported. Iran is the second major holder of gas deposits in the world.

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