Gas supply project to 99 villages in Ilam Province is underway, the head of Ilam Province Gas Company said.
“Out of a total of 624 villages in the western province, 517 villages have been provided with natural gas so far and with the completion of the current project, 99% of Ilam’s rural regions will get access to piped gas,” Mahmoud Keshavarz was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana.
The gas company plays an important role in the sustainable development of villages and providing services to disadvantaged rural areas will reduce the migration of villagers to cities, leading to the economic prosperity of rural areas, he added.
Currently, 100% of urban areas and 97% of rural regions in the province are connected to the gas grid.
More than 28 industrial and production units in urban and rural areas of Ilam were supplied with natural gas during spring.
About 1,600 meters of gas distribution network and a metering station were installed to supply gas to industrial and production units in this period.
By supplying gas to 28 industries, 1,157 cubic meters per hour of gas replaced liquid fuels, which helped save the consumption of 3 million liters of liquid fuels.
Natural gas was also supplied to 144 industrial units last year and currently 1,131 industrial units in the province are connected to the gas grid.
Last year, Ilam Refinery supplied 1.5 billion cubic meters of processed gas to the national grid for supply to households and industrial sectors in Ilam and neighboring provinces.
The construction of the second phase of the refinery started in winter and the development project will help increase feedstock from 6.8 to 10.2 million cubic meters, which will help boost the production of various byproducts.
With the completion of the second phase in two years, the refinery's products, including natural gas for urban and industrial use, sulfur, ethane, gas condensate and liquefied petroleum gas, which are used as feedstock in Ilam Petrochemical Complex, will increase by 1.5 times.
The refinery also produces 130,000 tons of ethane, 230,000 tons of liquefied natural gas, 70,000 tons of sulfur and 1,350,000 barrels of gas condensate annually.
With an estimated 14 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves and 17 billion barrels of oil reserve, equal to 6% and 11% of Iran's reserves respectively, Ilam ranks second and third in the country in terms of gas and oil reserves.
Ilam accounts for 90% of western Iran's oil and gas, making the province an energy hub.
