Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 31
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) delivered 144.385 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to various sectors including households, commercial sector, industry and power plants from the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2014) till Jan. 30.
Naser Ebrahimi, an official with the NIGC said that the company has delivered about 71.837 billion cubic meters of gas to the household and commercial sectors as well as small industry during the period, the oil ministry's official SHANA news agency reported Jan. 31.
The figure stood at 69.9 bcm during the same period of preceding year, he added.
House hold and commercial sectors' average daily gas consumption stood at 228 million cubic meters during the first 316 days from the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2014- Jan. 30), meanwhile it was about 221 million cubic meters in the same period of last year, Ebrahimi said.
He added that over 44.554 bcm of gas was delivered to the country's power plants during the period, 11.55 bcm more compared to preceding year.
The NIGC supplied the power plants with averagely 142 million cubic meters on a daily basis during the period, the official said.
He noted that the national gas company supplied the country's major industries with 27.994 billion cubic meters of gas, 1.875 bcm more year-on-year.
In the previous fiscal year, Iran delivered around 36 billion cubic meters of gas to its power plants and consumed around 27 billion liters of mazut and gas oil to generate electricity.
But the officials announced that they will increase gas delivery to power plants to 42 billion cubic meters in the current year.
The Islamic Republic faced severe gas shortages last winter. In addition to cutting the gas supply to power plants, which led to burning $30 billion of liquid fuels, the Iranian government had to decrease gas delivery to petrochemical plants from 1,236 million to 530 million cubic feet.
That caused a drop in the petrochemical production by 7.5 million metric tons during the last fiscal year (ended on March 21, 2014).
It should be noted that the Islamic Republic holds 33.6 trillion cubic meters of proved gas reserves, sharing 18 percent of total global gas reserves which puts the country in the top of the world's gas holders list.
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