Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.4 / Trend F.Mehdi /
A large gas pipeline running to a length of 100 kilometres, will be built in Iran to supply gas to the easternmost parts of the country, the Mehr News Agency reported.
Some 450 billion rials (about $36 million) has been allocated to the project which will be carried out by Iranian contractors.
On January 16, IRNA quoted Mohammad-Reza Gharavi, an official with the National Iranian Gas Company, as saying that 89 per cent of houses in Iran have been supplied with natural gas.
Over 937 cities and 13,150 villages are currently connected to the national gas grid, he noted.
"Also over 10,600 large industrial units and 42,500 small businesses have been supplied with gas."
During the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-December 20, 2012), 107 billion cubic meters of gas was consumed in the country, he added.
Deputy Director of the National Iranian Gas Company Mostqafa Kashkouli said in October 2012 that Iran's gas consumption will reach 600 million cubic meters per day in the upcoming winter.
Daily gas production in Iran is about 600 million cubic meters and this is projected to increase to 1.2 billion cubic meters in the future.
According to the National Iranian Gas Company, the country's oil and natural gas reserves account for 10 and 16 per cent of total world reserves, respectively.
With 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, Iran has the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia.