TEHRAN - National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Dispatching Director Mehdi Jamshidi Dana says NIGC is currently supplying 120 million cubic meters (mcm) of natural gas to the country’s power plants on a daily basis and there is no problem in this regard.

“The national gas grid’s pressure is at an all-time high, and gas supply to power plants now has reached 120 million cubic meters per day,” Jamshidi Dana told IRNA.

Mentioning the recent surges in the country’s domestic gas consumption, the official said: “since the gas consumption by the households reached 600 mcm due to the extreme cold weather, gas supply to the power plants was reduced to 40 million cubic meters just for two days.”

The national gas network is in optimal condition and NIGC is prepared for facing any critical situation, he said.

According to Jamshidi Dana, some 80 mcm/day of gas has been supplied, on average, to the country’s power plants during the previous Iranian calendar month of Bahman (January 21-February 19).

In late January, Iran’s daily natural gas consumption had hit a record high of 592 mcm a day due to heavy snowfall across the country.

Iran is currently producing over 810 mcm of natural gas on a daily basis which is mostly used inside the country for the domestic sector and also as fuel for the power plants and a small portion is also exported to the neighboring countries like Iraq.

Currently, about 30,000 villages with 4.6 million households as well as 1,148 cities with over 18 million households are connected to the national gas network in Iran.

Back in January 2019, the NIGC’s managing director had announced that 93.6 percent of Iran’s population enjoy natural gas. 

Gas is supplied to 97 percent of people in the urban areas and 82 percent of people in the rural regions, according to Hassan Montazer Torbati.

EF/MA