Tehran, Iran, Oct. 29
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
The Managing Director of Iran's Natural Gas Storage Company Masoud Samivand said that the country is able to pump 20 million cubic meters of gas per day from Sarajeh and Shoorijeh gas storage facilities to the country's national gas network in the upcoming cold months.
"If the temperatures continue to drop, the country will start extracting gas from storage facilities in two weeks," he said, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported on Oct. 29.
"We extracted 9-10 million cubic meters of gas per day from Sarajeh storage facility in previous winter which proved that the storage facilities are effective," he added.
The official went on to note that if people use gas efficiently, the country would face no shortage in winter.
Samivand said Oct. 27 that some 2 billion cubic meters of gas have been stored in the country's storage facilities, Iran's ILNA News Agency reported.
"Natural Gas Storage Company has completed its obligations," Samivand said, adding the company stored even more gas than the expected figure.
"We have stored enough gas and some new phases of South Pars gas field have also started production, so the situation is better than previous winter. However, people still need to use gas efficiently," the official said.
Currently, Shoorijeh gas storage facility - located in the northeastern province of Razavi Khorasan and Sarajeh gas storage facility- located in the central Qom province - are active in Iran.
The construction operation of Iran's third gas storage facility is underway in central Kashan city. Once the facility comes on stream, the country's total storage capacity will increase by 3 billion cubic meters to reach 11 billion.
Iran is now the Middle East's leading country in terms of gas storage capacity.
The country is also among the world's top five countries in this regard.
Based on the Fifth Five-year Socio-Economic Development Plan (2011-2015), gas storage facilities are in charge of providing enough gas to meet 14 percent of the country's total consumption in the cold months.
Samivand said Feb. 21 that based on global standards, Iran needs to store around 10 to 15 per cent of its total consumption, which is equal to 15 billion cubic meters.
"In case of constructing a 40-million cubic meters refinery for Shoorijeh facility and another 20-million cubic meters facility for Sarajeh facility, the country will even be able to pump 60 million cubic meters of gas to national network," Samivand said in June.
Iran plans to increase its gas storage capacity by the end of the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 21.
Iranian oil minister has ordered the related bodies to do their best to achieve the goal, Iran's IRIB News Agency reported on April 20.
According to BP's latest yearly report, Iran's dried gas output is about 160 bcm, a little more than domestic consumption level.
Iran exported 7.5 bcm of gas to Turkey and imported 4.5 bcm of gas from Turkmenistan in 2012, according to BP's report.
