The recent air pollution in major cities does not have any bearing on the reduction of gas supplies to power plants, said the spokesman for the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Majid Bojarzadeh.
Due to the construction of the inter-phase lines in South Pars area, there will be a reduction in gas transferred to the national network for a week, from 140 million cubic meters (mcm) to 80 mcm a day, IRNA reported.
Regarding allegations that air pollution is attributed to this reduction, Bojarzadeh said the recent increase in air pollution is unrelated to the cut in gas supply to power plants.
With the onset of winter, household gas consumption will increase, and to meet this demand gas supply to power plants and industries will be halted, and mazut will be substituted for gas.
Saeed Motesadi, deputy environmental manager at the Department of Environment (DoE) called on the public to reduce gas consumption to allow power plants and industries to use natural gas instead of mazut, which he said is highly pollutant.
"It is only by reducing domestic gas consumption by 10 to 20 percent that mazut can be removed from the fuel cycle of power plants."
According to the World Health Organization, four of the 10 worst-polluted cities in the world are in Iran. Fueling power plants with fuel oil and diesel is one of the major contributing factors to air pollution.
Oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said earlier that 27 billion liters of fuel oil and diesel with high sulfur-content were consumed in power plants due to gas shortage last year.
