Gas Pipeline to Zahedan Goes on Stream Next Week

Gas supply to Sistan-Baluchestan’s provincial capital Zahedan will begin next week, the spokesperson for the National Iranian Gas Company said on Monday.

“The 265-kilometer Iranshahr-Zahedan gas pipeline, laid at an estimated cost of $230 million, is being tested and will be officially inaugurated next week,” Majid Boujarzadeh was quoted as saying by IRNA. Iranshahr and Zahedan are both in Sistan-Baluchestan Province. Commenting on the construction of the pipeline, which links the country's biggest gas field in the southwest, namely South Pars, to Sistan-Baluchestan, Boujarzadeh noted that pipe-laying operations started in September 2015 and were funded by the private sector.

Boujarzadeh noted that the plan is aimed at delivering gas to at least 130,000 subscribers in the city of Zahedan and adjacent towns, as well as providing the province’s power plants and industries with the precious energy source.

Iranshahr-Zahedan pipeline project is touted as one of the biggest gas projects in one of the country's least developed provinces in recent history.

According to Mahmoud Astaneh, a senior oil ministry advisor, an estimated $8.5 billion worth of projects are underway to expand the natural gas network for small towns and villages in remote areas in southern regions.

He said $4.8 billion is being spent on expanding the national gas grid in urban and rural areas, $1.6 billion to integrate villages with a population of over 20 households into the national gas grid in Sistan-Baluchistan and more than $1 billion is allocated for providing 20,000 industrial units with natural gas.