iran's Gas Demand Rises
The president of Iran Hassan Rouhani said August 1 that the country is expected to use 284bn m³/yr in the next Iranian calendar year, which ends in March 2018 – nearly double what was used in the year to March 2014. Iran now uses 255bn m3/yr.
Addressing a conference which was held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Iranian gas industry, Rouhani added that some 90% of the country’s population – 99% of the urban population and 60% of the rural population – use gas.
In 1978-79, Iran used just 2.5bn m³ and less than 1% of the whole population had access to it, he added. Iran’s output will rise by 140mn m³/d in the current Iranian year, which ends in March 2017, the president noted.
South Pars phases 12, 15, 16, and 17 have come on stream since his administration took office in August 2013. “By the end of the current year, phases 18, 19, 20, and 22 will come on stream, adding another 140mn m³/d to the output,” he said, Shana news agency reported on August 1.
Self-sufficiency in the energy sector plays a key role in sovereignty of the nation, he stressed. Next to oil, gas has a great effect on the country’s foreign policy, he noted. “Energy has a close relation with development. So, the sanctions targeted oil exports, which is influential in people’s economy and livelihood,” Rouhani said.
The oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, for his part, said that the country’s gas demand has increased by 100 times over the past 40 years. He added that gas exports are planned to rise to 200mn m³/d and pipeline exports to neighbouring countries and the completion of Iran LNG project are priorities.
Bijan Zanganeh (Credit: PressTV-Iran)
Gas use in Iranian calendar year 1368 (1989/90) was 4.5bn m³, but 46bn m³ in 1997/98 and 145bn m³ in 2013/2014. It is predicted that the figure would rise to 284bn m³ in 2017-18, almost doubling between 2013 and 2018.
He said 9% of the population had a gas supply in 1989/90; this rose to 27% in 1997/98, to 61.8% in 2005/06, and to 90% in 2014/15. The aim is to reach 95% this year.
He went on to say that the South Pars production increased from 41bn m³ in 2005-06 to 95bn m³ in 2013-14 and to 130bn m³ in 2015-16. The output is projected to rise to 236bn m³ by March 2018.
In the first three months of the current Iranian year, which corresponds to spring 2016, petrochemical units using gas produced 3.193mn mt of products, up from 2.868mn mt in the same period last year, Zanganeh said.
In 2012/13, liquid fuels accounted for 36% of the power generation fuel mix but only 27% in 2014/15; 18% in 2015/16; and this is projected to be 10% in 2016/17, he said.
Iran supplied 58bn m³ of gas to power plants last fiscal year, and the figure is expected to reach 67bn m³ this year.
Hamid-Reza Araqi, the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company, also addressed the conference. He said that NIGC supplied more 2,000 villages with gas during last fiscal year and another 2,800 villages will be supplied with gas by March 2017.
He also said that 250mn m³/d of gas went to 72 power plants nationwide, accounting for 90% of their fuel intake. Meanwhile, 700mn m³/d of gas went to other consumers and the figure will be increased to 1.2 bn m³/d by 2025, he noted.
Azerbaijan desk