To help extend the national gas network to small towns and villages, pipe-laying operations to supply Naeen County in Isfahan Province with natural gas have started, the managing director of the state-owned National Iranian Gas Company said.
“Close to 100 kilometers of pipeline will be laid to link the rural district to the grid, following which the supply of compressed natural gas to the region will be halted within a year,” Majid Chegeni was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news portal Shana.
The plan is estimated to cost $30 million and it will help industries in the county get access to the fuel, he added.
The official said expanding the gas network to small towns and villages in remote areas, establishing gas pipelines and setting up compressor stations are NIGC’s priorities, which can help increase the wave of reverse migration from bigger cities to smaller towns and suburban areas.
“Currently, over 88% of rural areas in the country have access to natural gas. About 36,000 villages have been supplied with gas in the country and the figure will reach 43,000 in two years,” he said.
Providing rural residents with natural gas will not only help develop infrastructure, but also create much-needed employment that will result in economic prosperity in the long run.
According to the NIGC data, there are more than 25 million natural gas subscribers in the country.
Gas transmission network has surpassed 38,000 km, which has greatly contributed to the development of infrastructure in rural areas.
The construction of transmission lines and distribution network has created a chain of direct and indirect employment as it has been carried out by Iranian experts, engineers and workforce using equipment manufactured by domestic producers.
The expansion of national gas grid has been made possible because of the rise in gas production capacity that currently stands at over 1 billion cubic meters per day.
NIGC has invested over $17 billion in natural gas infrastructure since 2014. The major portion of the funds went to complete the South Pars Gas Field phases and the Iran Gas Trunkline to expedite gas delivery to remote rural areas, power plants and industries.
IGAT is a series of nine large diameter pipelines built to supply gas from refineries in the southern Khuzestan and Bushehr provinces.
Holding 34 trillion cubic meters of gas, Iran has the largest proven gas reserves in the world. The amount constitutes 18% of the world’s proven reserves, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
