With a population of 80 million Iran’s daily gas consumption at 700 million cubic meters exceeds that of the 28-nation European Union, which consumes a total of 500 mcm per day, National Iranian Gas Company's deputy for engineering and development affairs said on Tuesday.
"The European Union's population is guesstimated at 513 million. Nonetheless, its daily natural gas use is 200 mcm less than Iran," Ahmad Rayati told IRNA.
Rayati said 750 mcm of gas is injected into the Iran Gas Trunkline (IGAT) every day, of which 50 mcm is exported to Iraq and Turkey, and the bulk is used in households and industrial and power plants inside the country.
"While average global gas consumption has registered a small increase of 1.65% in the past three decades, Iran's demand for the same fuel has risen 4.2% in the same period, an unreasonably high level.”
Experts including Rayati say most households burn the fuel imprudently while (old and outdated) industrial equipment has very low efficiency, which clearly explains why a huge amount of energy is wasted.
According to a report published in June by BP Statistical Review of World Energy, Iran's natural gas consumption in 2017 stood at 214 billion cubic meters.
BP says Iran accounts for almost 40% of gas consumption in the Middle East. China, the world’s second-largest economy and the most populous nation, consumed 191 billion cubic meters in that year.
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"Close to 36,000 kilometers of high-pressure gas pipes are up and running across the country," he said, adding that the transmission and distribution pipeline network stretches over 350,000 km.
Rayati said there are 45,100 small towns and villages in the country, of which 27,200 are connected to the grid. The number is expected to cross 30,000 by March.
Regarding gas use in urban areas, he said 23 million households in 1,135 cities are linked to the network.
Criticizing those who insist on supplying piped gas to villages instead of industries, he said providing petrochemical, steel, cement and power plant units with gas “should be given a higher priority because not only is it eco-friendly, but also helps in conveying a sense of stability regarding energy supply in addition to generating jobs and increasing revenue.”
There are 20,000 industrial units in the country of which 3,822 have access to natural gas.
"With the completion of more phases of South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, environmentally-unfriendly liquid fuels, such as diesel and mazut, are being replaced by natural gas as feedstock for industries," he said, adding that an estimated 50 billion liters of liquid fuel was saved in the past four years.
NIGC is expanding gas supply infrastructure and is working to raise daily gas production to 1.2 billion cubic meters by 2020 from the present 880 million cubic meters.
Iran (with 34 trillion cubic meters) and Russia (with 32.6 tcm) hold the world’s largest proven gas reserves.
