Daily gas pipeline transport capacity has increased by 100 million cubic meters after a new compressor station went online this week, manager of the 10th Gas Transfer District said Monday.
"Using domestic resources, Iranian engineers have successfully put the Kheirgou compressor station into operation," Shana news agency quoted Hamid Khedri as saying. The new station would pump natural gas produced from Parsian and South Pars refineries into the natural gas network – through 4th and 8th Gas Trunkline (IGAT4, IGAT8) - to be transported to northern provinces. Kheirgou compressor station is located on an intersection of IGAT4 and IGAT8, some 430 kilometers south of Shiraz, Fars Province.
Also speaking to Shana, managing director of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company (IGEDC), Alireza Gharibi, said that so far this year, three compressor stations have become operational, with the other two in Bijar, Kordestan Province, and Hamedan, the capital city of Hamedan Province.
He added that the first turbine of Bijar centrifugal compressor station has gone into operation and the second one will become operational soon. Before the end of the current Iranian year (March 20), several more compressor stations, including Pataveh, Polkaleh, Dehagh and Dasht will come on stream that "would dramatically increase the sustainability of the pipeline transport capacity," Gharibi announced.
Khonj, Naeen, Jahrom, Kashan and Safashahr are the main compressor stations scheduled to come online next year. The equipment needed for these facilities have already been imported and a contractor has been selected for the implementation of the projects, Gharibi concluded.
Turkmen Gas Imports Enough
Turkmenistan currently exports a daily amount of 29 million cubic meters of gas to Iran, said an official from the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) on Monday.
"This is enough to meet part of our domestic demand for natural gas" although the amount specified in Tehran-Ashgabat gas swap agreement is 40 million cubic meters, Asghar Soheilipour added. There is no issue between the two countries regarding the amount of gas that should be imported from Turkmenistan, the NIGC official asserted, adding that the country would definitely face no gas shortage this year "even if Turkmens do not increase their gas supply to Iran."
According to oil ministry officials, Turkmenistan has, since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2014) up to November, exported an average 25 million cubic meters of natural gas to Iran on a daily basis. It was agreed then that the amount be raised to 30 million cubic meters.
NIGC has announced that reliance on natural gas import from Turkmenistan would be reduced considerably once Sarakhs gas storage facility, which is said to be the largest in the Middle East, becomes fully operational. The facility was launched in September near the northeastern city of Sarakhs, across the border with Turkmenistan. An agreement was signed between the two neighbors during a November visit to Ashgabat by oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, according to which Turkmenistan should supply 40 million cubic meters of gas per day to Iran.
