Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 30
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's daily gas production surpassed 570 million cubic meters last week, Deputy Director of the National Iranian Gas Company, Abdolhossein Samari said, Jahanesanat newspaper reported on Dec. 30.
Including the imported gas the figure hit 600 million cubic meters per day, he added.
Samari went on to say that, Iran's total gas consumption reached 570 million cubic meters per day last week, with some 460 million cubic meters of that amount belongs to the domestic and commercial units` consumption.
He underlined that feeding gas to petrochemical units has been limited.
The company has suspended gas supply to some industrial units due to the gas shortage.
The majority of cement production plants have replaced liquid fuel with gas in recent days, Samari added.
Iran's power plants need about 140-150 million cubic meters of gas per day, but with the gas shortage the country is facing, the power plants have turned to using gas oil or kerosene.
Following a severe cold weather in a number of provinces, Iran warned people about a possible natural gas supply cut-off in winter due to the harsh cold season on Dec.3.
Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Hamidreza Araqi urged households to economize on the consumption of natural gas.
"If consumption is not limited, gas supply to power plants, industrial units, and households will be reduced," Araqi said, the Mehr News Agency reported on Dec. 13.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Nov. 29 that the coming winter will be the hardest one in the country's history in terms of gas shortage.
However, Zanganeh said that the Iranians will face no difficulty in the season, the IRNA News Agency reported.
The Mehr News Agency previously reported that based on 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 the U.S. Energy Information Administration report, Iran's natural dried gas output was about 153 billion cubic meters which is as much as the domestic consumption figures.
According to this report released in March 2013, overall, Iran's natural gas consumption is expected to grow around seven percent annually for the next decade.
Iran has 33.6 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, Jahanesanat newspaper reported on Dec. 30.