TEHRAN – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, on Monday, inaugurated 181 gas supply projects worth 1.88 trillion rials (about $44.761 million) in the southern Fars province through video conference, IRNA reported.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by the Head of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Hassan Montazer Torbati and some provincial officials.

As part of the mentioned projects, a city, and 55 rural areas were connected to the national gas network, while natural gas was also supplied to 125 production and industrial units.

As reported, over the past seven years, more than 18,000 villages with 1.6 million households have been connected to the national gas network.

Back in August, Zanganeh said that currently about 88 percent of the country’s rural areas are supplied with natural gas through the national network, while nearly 95 percent of the country’s total population is enjoying natural gas which is unprecedented in the world.

The NIGC head had earlier announced that gas supply operations in rural and urban regions of various provinces were ongoing despite the limitations created by the outbreak of the coronavirus.

According to Torbati, in the past few years, every year more than 3,000 villages have been connected to the national gas network.

Earlier, NIGC’s former dispatching director had said that the transmission capacity of the national gas network rose to one billion cubic meters per day (bcm/d).

The official mentioned the South Pars gas field’s new platforms going operational in the current year and noted that with the increase of the national gas network’s capacity the new production capacity from the South Pars platforms won’t be idle.

South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar, covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which, called South Pars, are in Iran’s territorial waters. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, called North Dome, are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.

EF/MA