BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 7
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
About $75 billion has been saved since the current government came to power in Iran (August 2013) by supplying of gas to Iran's thermal power plants, Deputy Oil Minister and Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Hassan Montazer Torbati said, Trend reports referring to the Shana news agency.
He made the remark at an event dedicated to the supply of gas to several regions in the Kermanshah Province (western Iran).
Torbati noted that until 7 years ago (March 21, 2013), about 30 percent of the fuel in Iran's power plants was liquid fuel.
He added that, of the 62 billion cubic meters of fuel used in thermal power plants, 27 billion cubic meters were liquid fuel and 36 billion cubic meters were natural gas.
"If this process has continued and Iran's extraction from the South Pars gas field had not increased, a minimum 150 billion liters of fuel would have been used in Iran's thermal power plants, to date, he said.
According to the deputy minister, so far, 13.5 trillion rials (about $322 million) have been spent on gas supplies in the Kermanshah Province (western Iran) and the gas supply projects worth 3 trillion rials (about $71.4 million) are implemented.
The director stressed that 3,000 villages will be supplied with gas in the current Iranian year (from March 20, 2020, to March 21, 2021), and other 3,000 villages in the next Iranian year (from March 21, 2021, to March 21, 2022).
Torbati said that 95 percent of 22 provinces out of Iran’s 31 provinces are supplied with gas.
The city of Nowdeshah, 81 villages, and 22 industrial enterprises in the Kermanshah Province (western Iran) were supplied with gas. A total of 550 billion rials ($13 million) was spent on these processes.
Also, the supply of gas to 9 villages and 39 industrial enterprises has begun. About 149 billion rials ($3.55 million) was spent on these processes.
The South Pars gas field is a joint gas field of Iran and Qatar. The proven reserves of the South Pars Gas Field are estimated at 51 trillion cubic meters of gas, of which 36 trillion are extractable. Iran has so far spent $33 billion on projects of the South Pars gas field. Around 75 percent of Iran's gas is supplied by this field.
Iran extracted 570 million cubic meters of gas per day from this field in the last Iranian year (from March 21, 2019, to March 20, 2020).