Natural gas output has reached 1 billion cubic meters per day, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company said Saturday.
"Iran is a major gas producer and daily output now is the equivalent of six million barrels of oil per day,” the Oil Ministry news agency Shana quoted Hassan Montazer Torbati as saying.
"With falling temperatures gas consumption in the domestic sector has surpassed 600 million cubic meters a day. Almost 130 mcm is used daily by power plants," he said.
Iran’s proven reserves of natural gas are 32 trillion cubic meters. Almost 40% of gas in the Middle East is consumed in Iran. Households are the largest consumers (in winter) followed by power plants and petrochemical companies.
Regarding exports to the neighboring countries, the official said: “Gas exports to Turkey and Iraq are on track without any problem.” Iran exports about 50 mcm a day of natural gas to the two neighbors. Armenia and Azerbaijan also buy gas via swap deals.
Although gas export is one of NIGC’s priorities “added value of gas is now more important for us,” Montazer Torbati said, adding that as the petrochemical industry develops gas will be converted into more valuable products. Currently an estimated 60 mcm is sold to petrochemical companies every day.
On the role of local manufacturers in the gas industry he said, “The gas industry is focused on domestic capabilities and most items used in the distribution sector are manufactured by local companies.”
In recent years NIGC has connected more than 15,000 villages to the gas grid and the equipment used in the network was produced by Iranian firms.
Every year about 1,000 kilometers of gas transmission lines are installed across the country and with the efforts of local engineers gas pipeline sheets have been indigenized, the officials said.
Iran has one of the largest gas networks in the world. Close to 40,000 km of high-pressure gas pipelines have been laid across the country and there are plans to extend it to 45,000 km by 2026. Regarding gas infrastructure, Iran tops the list in Asia and is fourth in the world.
“In other parts of the industry such as gas refineries a major part of equipment is made domestically and we predict that by 2022 all the chemicals and items used in refineries will be manufactured by local companies,” Montazer Torbati noted.
