TEHRAN - National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Dispatching Director says the country’s gas consumption during the first Iranian calendar month of Farvardin (March 20-April 19) has increased in comparison to the last year’s same period, Shana reported.

According to Mehdi Jamshidi-Dana, the daily natural gas consumption by domestic, commercial and non-industrial sectors was 349 million cubic meters (mcm), while major industries consumed 122 mcm and power plants used 142 mcm per day of natural gas.

Jamshid-Dana put the daily consumption by the domestic, major industries and power plants in the previous year’s same month at 316 mcm, 121 mcm, and 120 mcm, respectively.

The official noted that NIGC supplied 719 mcm of natural gas, on average, to the national gas network during the mentioned period.

Iran’s daily natural gas consumption had hit a record high of nearly 600 mcm a day in early February due to the unprecedented snowfall and cold weather that blanketed the country.

Iran is currently producing over 810 mcm of natural gas daily 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.

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

EF/MA