With the decline in temperature across Iran in the past few days, gas consumption in households has set a record high at the weekend, the oil minister said.
“Domestic gas consumption surpassed 540 million cubic meters per day on Thursday,” Javad Owji added, stressing that this volume of consumption has been unprecedented in fall.
“It’s like we have an early winter now,” he was quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana.
“Subscribers who use gas efficiently and prudently, such that it’s within the desirable consumption level, will be encouraged, but those who consume excessively will undoubtedly be fined,” he said.
According to the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company, gas consumption in the country has increased by about 90 mcm per day on average in the past month compared with the same period of last year.
“Tehran, Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan provinces had the highest amount of consumption in the period,” Majid Chegeni said.
He added that if subscribers reduce their consumption by only 10%, over 50 mcm of gas will be saved, which is equivalent to the production of two phases of the huge South Pars Gas Field.
Iran offers natural gas to households and businesses at highly subsidized rates, which experts blame for the illogically high level of gas consumption in the country.
Rising usage over the past winter forced NIGC to cut gas supplies to power plants across Iran, causing brief but recurrent power cuts in large cities across the country.
Oil Ministry authorities have warned there could be a shortage of nearly 200 mcm of gas in the coming winter, as demand is expected to increase by about 10% compared to last year.
NIGC has the capacity to pump nearly 1 billion cubic meters of gas per day to the national network. The government has devised plans to ensure power plants in Iran have access to adequate supplies of fuel oil over the winter to prevent any electricity outage in the country.
