Projects to connect more urban and rural households plus industries to the national gas grid in Sistan-Baluchestan Province will be accelerated with new investments in the range of $800 million, the oil minister said.
“Almost 95% of the country’s population is linked to the national gas network. An estimated five million people do not have access to piped gas, half of which live in Sistan-Baluchestan," the Oil Ministry news agency quoted Bijan Namdar Zanganeh as saying.
The underdeveloped province is the only region partly deprived of piped gas. Until the whole population of about 2.7 million are connected to the grid, homes make do with liquid fuel.
Around 36 million cubic meters of LPG is used in the province per annum and this volume will be cut when the new projects are complete.
“Almost 4.7 million liters of liquid fuel is supplied in the country every day of which 2.2 million liters goes to the southeastern province,” Zanganeh said.
Gas supply to Sistan-Baluchestan, Iran’s second largest province, will be completed by 2023, he stressed.
Pipe laying and infrastructure building is underway in several cities in the southeastern region including Zahedan, Zabol, Khash, Iranshahr, Mirjaveh, Chabahar, Mohamadan, Bampur, Bazman and Delgan.
In the provincial capital Zahedan 1,200 km of gas pipelines have been laid and 90% of the city is connected to the grid. Iranshahr was the first city in the province that was partly connected to the grid. Later construction of a 262-km pipeline between Iranshahr and the Zahedan was completed.
The pipeline that brings gas to the province is an extension of the Iran Gas Trunkline 7 that extends from Asalouyeh in Bushehr Province pumping gas from the major South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf.
Makran Coast
“So far $480 million has been spent on gas transmission lines for Sistan-Baluchestan. Completion of the gas supply projects will help develop the underprivileged province,” managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company said.
“Gas supply to the port city of Chabahar on the Mokran (also Makran) coasts will contribute to prosperity to the region, especially in the industry sector,” Hassan Montazer Torbati was quoted as saying.
So far, 100 factories and industrial units in the province are linked to the gas network and 200 more will be connected soon. Natural gas as a clean fuel is gradually replacing polluting liquid fuels such as diesel and mazut in industries across the country.
A pipeline will deliver gas to Makran Petrochemical Complex under construction in Chabahar. It will have 18 production units and transform the strategic-located region into Iran’s third petrochemical hub after Mahshahr in the southwest and Asalouyeh in the south.
The first phase of the sprawling complex being built on 1,200 hectares is scheduled to come online this year. When the first phase is operational it will produce 8.5 million tons per annum, including 1.65 million tons of methanol. The output will be sold as feedstock to petrochemical companies and downstream industries and will also be exported.
Twenty hectares in Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar, 20 km from Makran Petrochemical Complex, has been considered for the transport terminal. Chabahar City is 645 kilometers south of the provincial capital Zahedan in the southeast.
Stretching along the Oman Sea, the Makran region has not developed into the expected trade and shipping center, save for the port city of Jask, in Hormozgan Province, that is slowly emerging as an oil and gas terminal.
New oil loading facilities on the Makran coast will significantly cut shipping costs and spare lengthy voyage time through the Strait of Hormoz all the way to Iran's main oil and gas terminals, in Asalouyeh, Kharg Island and Mahshahr on the westernmost side of the Persian Gulf.
