TEHRAN - Iranian Gas Transmission Company (IGTC)'s managing director said the transmission capacity of the national gas network has risen 12 percent in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-August 21) to reach 870 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d), Shana reported.

“Currently, there are 37,400 kilometers of high-pressure transmission lines in the country, and in terms of global ranking, we have the fourth position in this sector, which is also unique in West Asia,” Mehdi Jamshidi Dana said in a press conference on Wednesday.

He said that the length of Iran’s gas transmission lines is three times the diameter of the planet, adding: "In total, these lines have 86 pressure boosting stations, each of which has about three, four or five turbochargers;  sometimes all of them have to be operational in the winter, and in some cases, even spare turbines must be used to deliver maximum gas throughout the country.”

Jamshidi-Dana further mentioned the increase in the production of the South Pars gas field and said: “We expect another 50 million cubic meters will be added to the country’s production capacity, and at the same time the ninth national [gas transmission] line will be put into operation so that we can easily manage the added inflow into the network.”

Regarding the plans of the Gas Transmission Company for the cold season, he said: "The main concern of the National Iranian Gas Company in all its subsidiaries, including refineries, gas transmission company, and provincial gas companies is to maximize the services from production to consumption, especially for household consumers; The priority of the National Gas Company is that the supply to households should not be cut off in any way and the pressure should not be reduced, and many measures have been taken to ensure this.”

EF/MA