Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 5
By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:
Iran has planned to invest $62.5 billion in mid/downstream gas sector by 2020, an Iranian official told Trend on conditions of anonymity Jan. 5.
He said that some $21 billion investment is needed to increase the refining capacity by 200 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of gas.
Currently the figure stands at around 700 mcm/d.
“About 5,000 km of high pressure gas pipeline and 19 gas stations worth $34 billion would be constructed,” he said, adding that the country would expand the gas distribution grid to cover more than 3.5 million households, expected to cost $4.5 billion.
Currently about 92 percent of Iran’s 80-million population are using gas. The figure for 2020 is expected to reach 98 percent.
Iran also plans to increase commercial gas production capacity from the current 730 mcm/d to 1,200 mcm/d by 2020, he said.
According to an official document, prepared by Oil Ministry and seen by Trend in 2016, Iran plans to invest $152 billion in mid/downstream gas projects by 2025.
Some $27 billion will be invested to distribution sector, $55.8 billion will go to transit, $44 billion to refining and $25 billion to other sectors, according to the document.
Some $127 billion is also projected to be invested in upstream gas sector by 2025.