The massive length of Iran's gas pipelines has the potential to increase the country’s share in global gas trade and strengthen its geopolitical security, a consultant to the head of the National Iranian Oil Company, said.
“The 40,000-km pipeline has made it possible for NIOC to import gas from Turkmenistan and also swap it with other Caspian Sea states, in addition to exporting the clean fuel to Iraq and Pakistan,” Sajed Kashefi was also quoted as saying by the Energy Today website.
The more Iran activates its natural gas trade with neighbors, the more benefits it can reap, as the extended grid will connect beneficiaries’ energy security and economic growth, he added.
Although NIOC injects close to 1 billion cubic meters of gas to the Iran Gas Trunkline per day, the import of 20 million cubic meters of gas per day from Turkmenistan is also of great importance, as it helps the company engage in international trade. It does not need to spend billions of dollars on laying 1,500 kilometers of high pressure pipeline to transfer a small amount of gas from Bushehr Province in the South to Golestan Province in the North.
In fact, pipelines remain the most reliable, easy-to-secure and economic means of transporting large volumes of gas. Yet cross-border pipelines are also capital-intensive projects with high operational costs and they are exposed to political, environmental, commercial and legal challenges.
“Although gas pipelines are poorly understood and the least appreciated mode of transport by the general public, as they are most often underground and invisible, they are vitally important to the economies and energy security of most nations,” the NIOC consultant said.
Commenting on converting gas to value-added commodities, Kashefi noted that due to the unreasonably high consumption of gas in the country, especially in the winter when it peaks at 700 mcm/d, petrochemical plants are deprived of the feedstock that can be used to produce value-added goods.
First Ranking
According to Gholam-Abbas Hosseini, the managing director of Iranian Gas Transmission Company, in terms of network size, IGTC, a subsidiary of NIGC, ranks first in Asia and fourth in the world after the US, Russia and Canada.
The company has established more than 40,000 kilometers of pipelines and built 88 gas pressure boosting stations with 326 compressor units and nine gas export and import terminals. It has the capacity to transfer more than 280 bcm of gas per year.
NIGC has invested over $17 billion in natural gas infrastructure since 2013.
Domestic gas output has surpassed 1 billion cubic meters per day, a major part of which comes from the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf.
South Pars meets 80% of Iran’s gas needs and the decline in output will create huge problems for households, industries and thermal power stations.
The giant gas field is spread over 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters and the rest is in Qatari waters.
With an estimated 14.2 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves in place, plus 18 billion barrels of gas condensates, the Iranian side of the field accounts for 40% of Iran’s total estimated 33.8 tcm of gas reserves and 60% of its gas production.
Iran holds the world’s second largest gas reserves after Russia. According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, Iran has 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, or 18% of the world’s proven reserves.
Gas Transmission
The volume of gas transmission across the country in the last Iranian year (March 2022-23) increased by 2% compared to the previous year.
“Last year, close to 274 billion cubic meters of gas were transferred across Iran while the figure was 268 bcm in the previous year,” the official said.
“The largest volume of gas transmission pertained to household use and due to the rise in temperature and cold winter last year, a high record of gas transfer was registered on Feb. 10, as more than 858 million cubic meters of gas were transferred on that day.”
Kashefi said timely repair and maintenance of pipelines and gas pressure boosting facilities, as well as the completion of the major overhaul of 44 turbines resulted in network stability and non-stop operation of turbo-compressors.
The National Iranian Gas Company supplies natural gas to over 95% of the country's population.
The previous sweet gas transfer record, set in January 2022, was 852 million cubic meters per day.
As development projects are underway in different regions, a rise in gas transfer is also expected. With the installation of new pipelines and the construction of pressure boosting stations, more gas can be transmitted through the Iran Gas Trunkline, which is a series of nine large diameter pipelines built to supply gas from refineries in the southern Khuzestan and Bushehr provinces.
