Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh launched a natural gas project on Monday in Jiroft, a well-known farming city in southeast Kerman Province.
Speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony, Zanganeh said, "Gas projects valued at $1.7 billion have been undertaken with the help of domestic contractors," Shana reported.
The natural gas pipeline project, costing $40 million was completed in 14 months, connects 78 small towns and remote rural areas to the national grid.
Giving a breakdown on project, he said the 71km pipeline was laid from Kahnouj Power Plant to Jiroft and can transfer 7 million cubic meters of gas per day. Kahnouj-Jiroft pipeline has eight compressor and gas pressure reducing stations.
Zanganeh went on to say that 1,151 villages in Kerman Province now have access to natural gas and work is underway to add 310 other small towns to the network this year.
Close to 80% of rural areas and 98% of urban regions are connected to the national grid, he said.
Regarding national gas output, the minster noted that the National Iranian Gas Company’s gas extraction from the joint South Pars Gas Field has surpassed 600 mcm. “What this means is that Iran has overtaken neighboring Qatar in gas extraction from the giant field in the Persian Gulf.”
Average gas consumption has exceeded 840 mcm/d in the last 10 months – up 35% compared to last year's corresponding period, the minister was quoted as saying.
Although gas output has increased by 114% compared to 2013, when production was 280 mcm, an unreasonably high levels of the fuel is consumed in the country, especially in the household sector.
Normal gas consumption in the home sector, the largest consumer, stands at around 425 mcm/d. The household sector is followed closely by power plants.
With 80 million people Iran burns more than 140 billion cubic meters of gas every year, not far from China, the world’s second-largest economy and the most populous (1.38 billion) country in the world, which consumed 191 billion cubic meters in 2015.
Situated in a relatively wide valley, Jiroft is considered the most suitable region in the entire Kerman Province for agriculture. Thanks to its variant climate zones, it produces both warm and cold weather crops including citrus fruits as well as broccoli, cucumber, tomatoes and egg plants.
