“IGAT has also been equipped with 14 new gas pressure regulating stations in the 8 months,” IRNA quoted Bahram Salavati as saying.
He noted that pipe laying work to connect South Pars Gas field onshore refineries in Asalouyeh to the ninth Iran Gas Trunkline (IGAT-9) is now over.
The 56-inch-diameter pipeline stretching over 1,863 km starts from Asalouyeh, crosses Ahvaz, Dehgolan and to Bazargan district in the northwestern province of West Azarbaijan through 17 compressor stations, Financial Tribune reported.
Work started in 2015 on the $3 billion project that is expected to be inaugurated by March 2020. The pipeline carries 100 million cubic meters of natural gas per day to the northwestern regions near the Turkish border.
Pipelines have been extended in Fars (IGAT-4), Sistan-Baluchestan and Khorasan Razavi provinces.
Stretching for 1,145 kilometers, IGAT-4 with a capacity of 110 mcm/d, transfers gas from South Pars Gas Field phases 1 to 5 in Assalouyeh to Fars and Isfahan provinces.
Referring to gas pressure control and metering stations, he said new installations are operational in IGAT-6 which transfers gas from South Pars to the southern and western regions namely Lorestan, Hamedan and Kermanshah provinces.
More than 26,000 households have been added to the natural gas grid in Zahedan from last year. The city has a population of more than 650,000 in 130,000 households.
"As soon as we are done in the capital, the main pipeline that is an extension of the Iran Gas Trunkline 7 (IGAT-7) will be extended to other major cities namely Zabol, Khash, Iranshahr and Chabahar," he said. Until then the homes will get CNG in cylinders.
IGAT-7 stretches over 900km between Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province, and Iranshahr in Sistan-Baluchestan Province.
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.
The official said 3,000 small towns and villages are connected to the grid annually and 80% of rural regions now have access to piped gas.
Iran's natural gas grid has expanded to 390,000 kilometers in three decades.