Winter Pushes Up Gas Demand

EghtesadOnline: Natural gas supply surpassed 710 million cubic meters on Monday as cold weather pushed into the northern and western regions, head of the National Iranian Gas Company Dispatching Department said.

News ID: ۷۵۱۵۲۱

18 November 2020

“Households used 480 million cubic meters of gas on November 16, up 6% compared to the same period in 2019,” Mohammadreza Joulaee was quoted as saying by ILNA.

The mercury in Tehran and other cities with relatively moderate climate (compared to the southern regions) has bordered near 7-11 degrees Celsius in the past few days and 105 mcm of gas was delivered to thermal power plants on Monday, Joulaee said.

About 92% of Iran’s electricity (58,000 megawatts) is produced at 123 power stations most of which run on natural gas.

The weatherman has forecast a cold winter this year because of which gas delivery to power stations will be cut to 50 mcm/d (as last year) “unless families rethink their high consumption patterns”.

He noted that average daily gas consumption in Tehran Province alone (80 million cubic meters) is the equivalent of the production of three phases of the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf.

Giving a breakdown on NIGC output, he said 765 million cubic meters was injected into the Iran Gas Trunkline (IGAT) on November 16 of which 125 mcm was used by industrial units, namely cement factories. Almost 50 mcm was sold to Iraq and Turkey.”

NIGC remains committed to its export contracts and at least 50 mcm of gas will be exported to Iraq and Turkey per day, Joulaee added.

Total gas production has reached 880 mcm/d of which 650 mcm/d comes from South Pars and the rest is produced by the Iranian Central Oil Fields Company that has three subsidiaries, namely West Oil and Gas Production Company, East Oil and Gas Production Company and South Zagros Oil and Gas Production Company.

High and Rising

The official went on to say that Iran has been using record amounts of natural gas for years, which is way higher than the global average.

"While the average global gas consumption has registered a rise of 1.65% in the past three decades, demand in Iran has jumped 4.2% in the same period. This is cause for alarm."

According to a report published by BP Statistical Review of World Energy, Iran’s natural gas consumption in 2017 was 214.4 billion cubic meters, up from 201.3 bcm one year ago or up 6.5%.

Almost 40% of Middle East gas consumption is in Iran -- a stark reality energy experts warn cannot be sustained in the foreseeable future.

Joulaee added that "our population is 1.65% of the world and 20% of the Middle East.” With a population of 82 million, Iran burns more than 200 billion cubic meters of gas annually, which is closer to China’s, the second-largest economy and the most populous country in the world, which consumed 191 billion cubic meters in 2015, according to available data.

IGAT is a series of nine large diameter pipelines built to supply gas from refineries in the south (Khuzestan and Bushehr provinces) across the country.

SP has 24 phases all of which (except Phase 11) are now operational. The field, which Iran shares with Qatar, covers 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which (South Pars) are in Iran’s territorial waters and the rest is owned by the Persian Gulf Arab emirate of Qatar.