Baku, Azerbaijan, May 3
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
The Iranian energy ministry has rejected the oil ministry's claim about selling electricity at low prices to the neighboring countries, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on May 3.
On April 23, Iran's oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Iran should not lessen gas exports by boosting electricity exports.
He emphasized the importance of paying attention to gas exports, saying "We should make a rival for gas exports through boosting electricity exports," Iran's Shana news agency quoted Zanganeh as saying.
"Each cubic meter of gas is sold at 45 cents. This is while the same amount of gas can be used to generate 5.8 kilowatt hours of electricity, which is sold at 20 cents," the minister explained.
"Some $3.5 billion worth of oil and gas has been used in recent years to generate electricity, while just $800 million has been earned through exporting the generated electricity," he said.
In a statement, the energy ministry rejected the oil ministry's claims, saying that just hydroelectric power plants, and not thermal power plants, have exported electricity last year.
Iran exported 1,033.5 gigawatt hours of electricity to neighboring from the beginning of the current calendar year (March 21) so far.
The figures show 5 percent increase compared to the same period of time the previous year, Iran's IRIB News Agency reported on April 30.
Tehran had exported 985 gigawatt hours of electricity in the same period of time previous year.
Iran trades electricity with Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.
Deputy Energy Minister Sattar Mahmoudi said in November 2013 that Iran annually exports 8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to neighboring countries.
"The mentioned figure is about 3 percent of the country's total output," the ILNA News Agency quoted Mahmoudi as saying.
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