Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.1/ Trend R.Zamanov
Even if Iran imports 40 million cubic meters of gas daily from Turkmenistan, the country would still face a 30 billion cubic meters gas shortage this winter, the Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Tuesday.
"Iran also needs to use up to eight million cubic meters of gas per day from the Sarajeh and Shourijeh gas storage facilities in the cold months," the Mehr News Agency quoted Zanganeh as saying.
"The country's domestic consumption has increased in the past four year, while no phase of the South Pars gas field has come on the stream in the period," he said.
"This year some $17-18 billion worth of liquid fuel is being consumed in the power plants which is catastrophic," he added.
"If the country's gas production had increased, Iran could have saved the aforementioned amount of money by feeding gas to the power plants," Znganeh explained.
He went on to say that once phases 12, 15 and 18 of the South Pars gas field come on stream, some 170-180 million cubic meters of sweet gas and 280,000 barrels of gas condensates would be added to the country's production capacity. However, the oil minister said he believes the mentioned capacity would not be achieved in the next two years.
"The oil ministry's priority in developing the South Pars gas field's phases are the old ones," Zanganeh said.