TEHRAN: Director of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Hassan Montazer Torbati, said during a conference that Iran’s gas exports have exceeded imports by 2.5 billion cubic meters since last year and this was achieved in view of the growth in South Pars gas field output.
He noted that the trade balance in the country’s gas trade is now positive.
NIGC’s director said Iran’s gas exports increased by 8 percent compared to the figure for the corresponding period last year, IRNA reported.
He added NIGC has set up the infrastructures for exporting gas to Basra, Iraq.
“In the past few years, due to low gas production, the national gas network had difficulty in supplying gas to the household, trade and industrial sectors. Therefore, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh prioritized the completion of the South Pars Gas Field development projects in Bushehr province.”
He noted due to gas shortage in the winter, power plants used oil byproducts as feedstock which placed extra costs on the Oil Ministry, depleting its monetary resources and delaying the improvement of oil industry’s infrastructures.
Montazer-Torbati said SP phase 12 became operational at a favorable time and grounds have been prepared for its connection to the fifth and sixth national pipelines.
“Once all the gas export contracts to Iraq are signed, Iran can export 10 mcm of natural gas per day to that country.”
He noted following the Persian Gulf littoral states, European countries are Iran’s second gas export priority.
Montazer-Torbati said sections of the sixth national pipeline and the pressure booster stations of the eighth national pipeline are to go on stream during the Iranian year which begins on March 21, 2015.
He added gas processing capacity has grown by 22 billion cubic meters since mid-March 2014, compared with the figure for the same period of a year ago, setting a new record in this regard since 1970.
NIGC’s director noted that since mid-March 2014, five pressure booster stations have become operational and 700 kilometers of high-pressure pipelines have been laid.
“In this period, one million households were connected to the national gas network and this figure is expected to reach 2.5 million in three years.”
