Daily gas consumption between Sept. 23 and Oct. 7 (the first two weeks of fall) increased by 30 million cubic meters compared with the same period of last year, the National Iranian Gas Company’s director for dispatching said.
“Given the decline in temperature that happened earlier this year compared with a year ago, more gas was consumed during the two weeks, although no restrictions have been imposed on any sectors yet,” Mohammad Reza Joulaei was also reported as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana.
Referring to gas consumption in different sectors, the official said power stations across the country now use 240 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, major industries consume 140 mcm per day and residential consumption stands at 220 mcm/d.
“In order to pass the cold season and ensure the stability of gas transmission during the winter, we have prepared a specific program, which includes repair and maintenance of refineries, pipelines and storage tanks, as well as storing liquid fuel in power plants,” he said.
"Most of the refineries have been overhauled and the few remaining repairs will be completed by the end of the month. This will ensure maximum production and efficient gas supply to different sectors.”
Speaking about the gas storage, Joulaei said, “We have stored 4 billion cubic meters of gas in the Sarajeh storage facility in Qom Province and Shourijeh reservoir in Sarakhs County, Khorasan Razavi Province, which can help us a lot in winter when consumption rises considerably.”
As a routine procedure, gas is injected into the reservoirs in the first eight months of the Iranian year and used in the last four months of each year.
Currently, Sarajeh and Shourijeh reservoirs in the center and northeast regions are the only natural gas storage facilities.
As a leading gas producer, Iran is expanding its underground gas storage capacity with plans to increase the capacity of Sarajeh and Shourijeh.
Plans are underway to add five storage facilities to secure stable gas supply, especially in the cold season. Freezing temperatures in some regions fall below 15 degrees.
“We are ready to inject 850 million cubic meters of gas per day to the national gas grid,” Joulaei said.
He also pointed to the storage of liquid fuel in power plants and said that with the cooperation of other related organizations, liquid fuel (diesel and mazut) have been supplied to a number of power plants so that in case of higher gas consumption in the domestic sector, which will limit gas supply to power plants, electricity generation in power stations will not be disrupted.
