The gas companies of Khorasan Razavi and Yazd provinces have been selected by the National Iranian Gas Company to implement gas supply projects to 24 cities and more than 1,700 villages in Sistan-Baluchestan Province.
As the second largest province in Iran, Sistan-Baluchestan occupies 11.4% of the total area of the country and has a population of 2.77 million people. However, because many parts of the province are not yet connected to the gas grid, people there have been provided with liquefied gas, which has caused a lot of problems and expenses for the people as well as production units, power plants and industrial units, the Oil Ministry’s news service Shana reported.
The development of gas supply in the province has accelerated in the past two years and natural gas has reached big cities like Iranshahr and Khash. Projects are underway to connect more regions in the province to the national gas grid.
The first phase of the project to supply gas to Chabahar City has registered 25% progress, the managing director of Khorasan Razavi Gas Company said.
“In the first phase, 260 kilometers of gas pipelines will be installed in Chabahar,” Hassan Eftekhari was also quoted as saying by Shana.
“The project is estimated to cost $4 million and will be completed within two years,” he added.
The completion of gas grid in southeastern regions would be a great boost to Chabahar Port, Iran’s largest oceanic port.
Chabahar has been officially designated a free trade and industrial zone by the government.
After the successful completion of the gas supply project to Zahedan, Khorasan Razavi Gas Company has been tasked with the implementation of the gas supply projects in the cities of Chabahar and Konarak, as well as villages located along the way.
Nimruz, Zabol and Zahak Counties
Yazd Gas Company is also making use of all the technical capabilities and work experience to supply gas to 13 cities and more than 900 villages and industries along the route in Sistan-Baluchistan, the managing director of the company said.
“This project consists of two phases, including gas supply to the villages of Nimruz and gas supply to the cities and villages of Zabol and Zahak. Its executive operations started in April and will be completed by October 2025,” Shana also quoted Saeed Aqli as saying.
“A total of 5,160 rural households and 30 industrial units in 47 villages in Nimruz County will be linked to the gas grid with the implementation of 190 km of distribution network,” he added.
The official noted that 180 km of distribution network and two pressure reduction stations with a capacity of 10,000 cubic meters per hour will be installed in Zabol and Zahak counties to cover 1,239 urban and 3,139 rural households as well as 40 industrial units.
Iranshahr was the first county in the province, which was partly connected to the gas grid. From there, a 262-km pipeline will supply gas to Zahedan, the provincial capital bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The pipeline is an extension of Iran Gas Trunkline 7 (IGAT-7) that stretches over 900 km between Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province, and Iranshahr, Sistan-Baluchestan.
So far, over 100 factories and industrial units in the province have been 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.
Almost 4.7 million liters of liquefied fuel are supplied daily in the country, of which 2.2 million liters go to the southeastern province. The volume used in the province will decline when the new projects are completed.
Almost 95% of the country’s population of 85 million are linked to the national gas network. An estimated five million people do not have access to piped gas, about half of which are living in Sistan-Baluchestan.
