Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 1
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Some 28 billion cubic meters of gas was delivered to Iran's power plants in the first 4 months of the current Iranian fiscal year, which began on March 21, said Naser Ebrahimi, director of gas distribution department of National Iranian Gas Company.
During the four-month period, 226 million cubic meters of gas was delivered to power plants on average per day, Shana news agency quoted Ebrahimi as saying on August 1.
This has prevented from consuming the same amount of liquid fuel in power plants, he noted.
Supplying gas to power plants will rise by 7bcm in the current year compared to the year before, he said.
Major industries consumed 11bcm of gas in the four-month period, he said, adding that household, commercial, and minor industries consumed a total of 16bcm in the mentioned period of time.
During Iran's last fiscal year, which ended March 20, liquid fuels burning in the power sector increased dramatically.
The country increased gas supply to power plants by 33.6 percent to about 49 billion cubic meters per annum (bcm/a) and decreased fuel oil and gasoline consumption by 32.6 percent to 28.1 million liters per day and 24.2 percent to 25.3 million liters per day in last fiscal year.
Iran is to increase natural gas delivery to power plants to 57 bcm in current year.
Iran reportedly increased gas production capacity by 100 mcm/d last year and wants to increase the volume in same pace during the current year. However, Iran needs 70 bcm/a of gas delivery to thermal power plants to stop burning liquid fuels in this sector completely.