Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.3
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Cold waves will sweep some 24 provinces of Iran today with minimum temperatures hovering around several notches below zero degrees Celsius, ISNA quoted an official of Iran's Meteorological Organization as saying.
"Freezing cold swept East and West Azarbaijan, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, Hamedan, Zanjan and Markazi provinces on Jan.2," Ahmad Vazifeh said.
Today, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and Zanjan provinces will experience lows of minus 14 and minus 10 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Earlier, 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.