TEHRAN – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, in a report addressed to President Hassan Rouhani, has stated that over 95 percent of the country’s population is currently enjoying natural gas through the country’s huge national network.

As reported by Shana, in the mentioned report on the development of the country’s gas industry during the 11th and 12th governments, Zanganeh has stated that the gas production from the giant South Pars gas field which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf has increased 2.5 times since the Iranian calendar year of 1392 (ended on March 20, 2014) when the 11th government took office.

According to the Oil Minister, the coverage of the national gas network in rural areas has also doubled over the mentioned period to reach 84 percent.

Based on the data presented in Zanganeh’s report, from the Iranian calendar year 1392 up to the current calendar year’s 11th month (started on January 20) over 20,000 rural areas with a total population of 1.76 million households have been supplied with natural gas through the national gas network.

Currently, more than 34,000 villages across the country are enjoying natural gas through this huge network, the report said.

Also during the mentioned period, over 193 cities with more than 641,000 households have also been connected to the national gas network.

Overall, about 98.4 percent of the country’s urban population is currently enjoying natural gas through the gas network while the figure stands at 84 percent for the rural population, the report showed.

According to the said data, the gas network coverage has increased by 3.5 percent for the urban population and the figure has also increased by more than 30 percent for rural areas since the Iranian calendar year 1392.

In addition to the mentioned developments, the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) has also managed to establish 31 pressure-boosting stations as well as 5,000 kilometers of new pipelines across the country.

Currently, over 2,205 kilometers of new gas pipelines are also under construction by NIGC subsidiaries all over the country.

Overall, more than 700 trillion rials (about $16.6 billion) has been invested in the mentioned development projects.

Also, the Iranian oil and gas industry has managed to produce more than 58 billion liters of liquid products valued at over $25 billion since the beginning of the Iranian calendar year 1393 (March 2014), leading to an increase of 300-percent in the exports of oil products.

The increase in the country’s gas production has also resulted in a 23-percent decrease in the liquid fuel consumption by the country’s power plants, leading to less air pollution and more environmental protection.

EF/MA