Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 4
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend:
The average of Iran's domestic gas consumption was around 570 million cubic meters in the past few days, which is a new record high, the spokesman of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Majid Boujarzadeh, said on Feb. 4, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported on Feb. 4 that
"Household's consumption accounted for over 518 million cubic meters of the mentioned amount," he said.
He went on to note that Tehran province's average gas consumption was around 219 million cubic meters in the past few days.
"No massive gas shortage has been reported from any city across the country," he added.
Boujarzadeh further urged Iranians to economize on their gas consumption.
The NIGC has cut the gas supply to some petrochemical complexes, while limiting supply to the rest. The company has asked the petrochemical complexes to limit their production to the lowest rate or completely halt production due to the gas shortage.
Iran has also limited gas supply to power plants and industrial units.
Head of Iran's Oil Industry Research Center Hamidreza Katouzian warned on Dec. 17 that if the current trend continues, Iran's domestic gas consumption will reach 2.5 billion cubic meters per day by 2025, Iran's SHANA News Agency reported.
"Currently Iran's domestic consumption equals the total consumption of industries in Europe," he explained.
He went on to note that the government and the oil ministry should pay more attention to this issue and try harder to optimize the country's gas consumption.
The Mehr News Agency previously reported that based on the 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 BP's latest yearly report, Iran's dried gas output is about 160 bcm, a little more than domestic consumption level.
Iran exported 7.5 bcm of gas to Turkey and imported 4.5 bcm of gas from Turkmenistan in 2012, according to BP's report.