Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25
By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:
Iran will complete the 170-km Damghan-Sari pipeline with 40 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of transit capacity by August 22, 2017, to cut reliance on Turkmen gas import, Iran Gas Engineering and Development Company's head Hassan Montazer Torbati said July 25.
The project is worth about $250 million, all of which lies upon local companies, he told Shana news agency.
According to him, the 42-inch pipeline would also ensure permanent gas supply to the Neka power plant.
Turkmenistan stopped gas export to Iran in January 2017 due to its $2-billion long-delayed debts.
Iran imported about 5.86 bcm gas from Turkmenistan during 2016, about 53 percent less than the previous year, according to an official document, prepared by Iran's Oil Ministry and seen by Trend.
Further, Iran has defined a project for building 11th cross-country pipeline worth $4.3 billion, but it hasn’t started the construction. The capacity of the pipeline is 110mcm/y, aimed to transit gas from South Pars gas field in Persian Gulf to north east regions.
Iran’s gas production capacity in north east regions stands at about 14 bcm/year, about 12 bcm/year less than the demand.
Iran’s gas demand rises in winter due to increasing housing demand. The country injects about 2 bcm/year to Shourijeh and Sarajeh underground gas storage facilities, placed in north regions in warm seasons and re-extracts it during winter.
Iran plans to invest $3 billion to increase the underground gas storage capacity at five plants from about 11.5 bcm by 2018. All of these storage facilities – Sarajeh, Shourijeh, Yurtesha, Nasrabad and Ghezel Tapeh – are in the north and northeast, according to an official document, prepared by Iran’s Oil Ministry.
