Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 22
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend:
The natural gas consumption of Iranian households and power plants has been doubled in the past decade, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Hamidreza Araqi said on Feb. 22, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported.
"The country's production capacity, however, has remained the same," Araqi said.
"Iranian households' consumption account for 31 percent of the country's total gas consumption in summer, but the figure rises to 80 percent in winter," Araqi said, adding the sudden rise leads to decrease in natural gas supply to petrochemical units.
The deputy oil minister went on to note that Iran pumped some 9.8 million cubic meters of gas per day from the Sarajeh gas storage facility to the national gas network this winter.
Managing director of Natural Gas Storage Company (NGSC), Massoud Samivand, said on Feb. 21 that Iran needs to store around 10 to 15 percent of its total consumption which is equal to 15 billion cubic meters, in accordance to global standards.
"It is while the country's gas storage capacity is currently around 1.3 billion cubic meters," Samivand added.
Currently, only Sarajeh gas storage facility is active in Iran.
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 gas from Turkmenistan in 2012, according to BP's report.