“The pipeline, which passes from Lorestan and Khuzestan provinces, is not harmed and gas export continues without problems,” IRNA quoted Saeid Momeni as saying.
Iraq is the main buyer of Iran gas via a pipeline linked to Baghdad. An estimated 27 million cubic meters of gas flows to the western neighbor on a daily basis.
Major Iraqi power plants are dependent on Iranian natural gas supply. The pipeline provides several power stations with their gas needs, including two in Baghdad and one in Diyala Province near the joint border, according to Financial Tribune.
A second pipeline is getting ready to pump gas to the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Once operational, Iraq’s total gas import from Iran will reach 70 mcm a day.
Iran also exports gas to Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Iran sits on the world’s second largest natural gas reserves and produces 610 mcm of gas per day.
Heavy rainfall, unprecedented over six decades, began March 19, overflowing rivers, washing away bridges, inundating houses and destroying infrastructure.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and are in dire need of food, water, tents and blankets. At least 78 people have died.
Floodwaters have inflicted colossal human and material damage in several towns and villages, especially in the western and northern regions.
Gas Back on Track
Flooding cut off gas, electricity and water supply in many regions. “Four provinces of Golestan and Mazandaran in north, Lorestan in the west and Khuzestan in the southwest have sustained the most damages,” Momeni said.
However, now all subscribers in the country are connected to the gas network and only five villages whose access roads are inundated remain disconnected.
Some 260 villages in Lorestan saw their access to the gas grid cut off due to the floods. “Now there is no problem in Lorestan and all villages and cities including Mamoulan and Pol-e Dokhtar county in Lorestan Province are linked to the gas grid like before,” the official added.
The floods submerged many villages, especially in and near Pol-e Dokhtar, and damaged the West Ethylene Pipeline, which carries feedstock to dozens of petrochemical plants in the western regions.
According to officials in the region, damage to the pipeline has been repaired and it will soon resume delivery of feedstock to petrochemical plants.
Momeni referred to Khuzestan saying that there is no more problem there regarding household gas supply.
More than 200 villages have been evacuated in oil-rich Khuzestan Province and 46,000 people have been housed in emergency shelters.
More water is being released from Dez and Karkheh Dams to keep reservoirs empty as more rainfall has been forecast in the western region in the coming days.
“The damage to the country’s gas network is estimated at 1,670 billion rials ($12 million),” Momeni said.
Business as Usual
“Despite the problems caused by flooding across the country, the supply of oil and petroleum products continues as usual,” the managing director of the Iranian Oil Pipeline and Telecommunications Company said.
Abbas-Ali Jafari-Nasab said despite the scale and scope of the destruction in several provinces, the company has strived to transfer oil and other products.
“Some crude oil pipelines in Markazi, Lorestan and Khuzestan provinces were damaged by the floods, but were repaired soon.”