Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.22
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran has increased natural gas refining capacity by 25 million cubic meters for the coming winter, the Mehr News Agency quoted Iran's natural gas storage company's managing director Masoud Samivand as saying on December 22.
The rise in the refining capacity of natural gas equals the production of a single phase of the South Pars gas field, he added.
In this line, a gas sweetening unit has recently come on stream at the refinery of the phases 15 and 16 with a production capacity of 10-12 million cubic meters (mcm) per day, he explained.
Moreover, the country's gas storage capacity has increased by 13 mcm per day after two facilities came on stream in the country.
Meanwhile, the Iranian deputy oil minister Hamidreza Araqi warned people about a probable cutoff of natural gas supply in winter due to harsh cold season, the Mehr News Agency reported on December 13.
Following a severely cold weather in a number of provinces, the official has urged households to economize the consumption of natural gas.
Gas supplies to power plants, industrial units, and households will be reduced, in case if consumption is not limited, he said.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on November 29 that the coming winter will be the hardest one in the country's history in terms of gas shortage.
However, Zanganeh said that the Iranians will face no difficulty in the season, the IRNA News Agency reported.
He went on to note that the country's gas sweetening capacity will increase by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2014).
"The gas sweetening output of phases 15 and 16 of the South Pars refinery will reach to 25 million cubic meters per day by the end of the current year," he said.
Currently, Iran's power plants need 140-150 million cubic meters of gas per day, but with the gas shortage the country is facing, the power plants have turned to consuming gas oil or kerosene.
Iran's household and business consumption currently stands 340-345 million cubic meters which is 15-20 percent more than the same period previous year.
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.