Iran’s daily gas consumption at whopping record of 740mcm

Iran’s Oil Ministry says gas consumption in the country hit a record daily high of 740 million cubic meters (mcm) on the first day of winter, a whopping figure which shows the country’s growing gas production is mainly serving the domestic demand.

The official IRNA news agency said in a Tuesday report that daily gas consumption on December 21, which marked the first day of the winter season in Iran, had grown by 55 mcm compared to the similar day last year.

The report cited figures by the Iranian Oil Ministry which showed the amount of gas injected into the national network of pipelines and storage facilities on December 21 had exceeded 810 mcm.

That is near the figures reported for current total output of gas in Iran as the country normally exports between 50 mcm to 70 mcm of gas to neighboring countries, mainly to Iraq and to Turkey.

Nearly 74 percent of the gas used on the first winter day in Iran went to the households, businesses and small industries, said a senior Oil Ministry official who added that the figure was a 11-percent increase on December 21, 2019.

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Mohammad Reza Joulayi, from the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), said large industrial units had burnt 120 mcm of gas on the same day while usage by power plants decreased 24 percent to 55 mcm mainly because of growing consumption by the households.

Iran has massively increased its output of natural gas in recent years as the country plans to reach a record high of 1 billion cubic meters per day of actual production by the time the current administrative government leaves office in August next year.

Iran has benefitted from increased supply of gas to power plants as it has saved large amounts of gas oil for exports. However, government authorities and experts believe growing household consumption may pose risks to Iran’s long-term plans to rely on gas exports as a stable source of earning hard currency revenues.

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