Plans are underway to improve the safety of Tehran's gas network against natural disasters, managing director of the Tehran Province Gas Company (TPGC) said, Mehr news agency reported Sunday.
Yaghoub-Ali Hossein-Nia said, "Tehran's gas network, as the largest in the Middle East, is being prepared for natural disasters, especially earthquakes. As a first step, 47 projects are being carried out."
TPGC is taking measures to improve Tehran's 11,000 kilometer underground gas network. To do so, replacement of steel pipes with ethylene pipes has been underway for the past ten years. Ethylene pipes have higher flexibility and durability.
Approximately 1,600 flanged valves have been inspected and fixed. Additionally, plans call for improving the safety of 760,000 gas pressure valves in the province. Gas pressure valves are normally placed on the outside of buildings, making them vulnerable to explosion.
Five years ago, the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) tasked the TPGC with increasing the safety of Tehran's gas network with a $56 million budget.
Supply Expansion
Gas is now supplied to 87 percent of households across the country, as 1016 cities and 16,200 small towns and villages have joined the national network, managing director of the NIGC said.
"Ninety six percent of households in urban areas, and 59 percent in villages now have access to piped gas," Naser Ebrahimi said.
NIGC supplied more than 111 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to residential and commercial areas, power plants and industrial sectors in the March-November period, 11 bcm more than the same period last year. Iran has approximately 29.6 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves which accounts for 16 percent of the world’s total reserves. This places Iran behind Russia with the second largest gas reserves worldwide. Iran's largest natural gas field, South Pars, is estimated to roughly hold 40 percent of Iran's gas reserves.
