The project to supply gas to all rural areas in Marivan County, Kurdestan Province, will be completed by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2024), the managing director of Kurdestan Gas Company said.
“Out of the total of 139 villages with gas supply capability in Marivan, 131 villages have been connected to the gas grid so far,” IRNA also quoted Ahmad Felehgari as saying.
“Gas supply operations are underway in eight other villages and with the gasification of these villages, all rural population in the county will get access to natural gas,” he added.
The official noted that currently, all urban areas and 99% of the rural regions are linked to the gas grid.
Moreover, gas supply projects are ongoing so that “all inhabited villages throughout Kurdestan Province will be connected to the national gas network by the end of the year,” he said.
Marivan County has 67,244 gas subscribers, of which 55,109 live in urban areas and 12,135 are located in rural regions.
Until recently, cities like Baneh, Marivan and Saqqez did not have enough gas because of technical constraints. However, the expansion of the grid has solved the low gas pressure problems caused by extreme weather in the cold seasons.
Industrial Units
Commenting on gas supply to industries in the county, Felehgari said a total of 191 industrial units in Marivan have been connected to the national gas network, and by March 2024, natural gas will be supplied to nine more units.
“The completion of projects will help save 230,000 liters of petroleum products and the volume of natural gas supply will reach 2,100 cubic meters per hour,” he added.
Last year, 189 production and industrial units were connected to the national natural gas network in Kurdestan Province.
The industrial units used to consume 3.22 million liters of liquid fuel annually. Having been linked to the gas grid, they can do without burning the eco-unfriendly liquid fuel.
To complete the projects, a total of 122 km of transmission lines were laid across the province.
So far, 2,444 large and small industrial units, the combined cycle power plant in Sanandaj, the Marivan CHP power plant and 19 industrial towns have been provided with natural gas.
Projects are underway to supply gas to more industrial units by the end of the current year.
The total length of the grid in the province of 1.6 million people now is around 12,000 kilometers that supply gas to 31 cities and about 1,200 rural areas.
National Status
Currently, some 36,000 villages comprising 85% of the rural areas in Iran have access to natural gas, to which another 6,000 will be added within a year.
The expansion of national gas grid has been made possible due to the rise in gas production.
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.
Data indicate 18,000 villages were connected to the national gas network since 2013. According to the National Iranian Gas Company, it has invested over $17 billion in natural gas infrastructure in the past decade.
The major part of the funds has gone to complete the major South Pars Gas Field phases and the Iran Gas Trunkline to expedite gas delivery to remote rural areas, power plants and industries.
Expanding the gas network to small towns and villages in faraway areas in the southern region, laying gas pipelines and setting up compressor stations are among NIGC’s priorities.
An estimated 10,000 rural districts (mostly in the underdeveloped Sistan-Baluchestan Province) still lack piped gas.
