Page 6 - MEOG Week 31.indd
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MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG
Iran inaugurates
northern gas projects
IRAN IRANIAN Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh this national network is the most economical way.”
week commissioned 286 gas projects in the Meanwhile, last month, Hassan Montazer
north-eastern province of Khrasan Razavi as Torbati, head of the National Iranian Gas Co.
part of Tehran’s plans to increase supply and (NIGC), said that projects to connect these areas
connectivity in rural areas. to the gas network remained ongoing despite
Local news agency IRIB reported that these lockdowns and other issues creased by the coro-
developments would increase gas network cov- navirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
erage in rural areas to 88%, giving new 77 areas This followed comments from NIGC’s for-
and 39 more villages access to gas supplies. mer director of dispatching, Mehdi Jamshi-
Meanwhile, gas supplies to 167 production and di-Dana, who said that the national gas network’s
industrial units also commenced. capacity had increased to 1bn cubic metres per
Zanganeh was quoted by IRIB as saying that day. Meanwhile, Shana recently reported that
2013, more than 32,000 rural households had the country’s gas refining capacity had also
been connected to the national gas network, and expanded to more than 1 bcm per day.
that more than 95% of the country’s total popu- Exports also grew by around 3.6 bcm
lation is connected to the grid. “This coverage is between March 2019 and March 2020 and this
unprecedented in the world,” he added. week, a source at NIGC told Middle East Oil &
Of Tehran’s plans for expanding coverage in Gas (MEOG) that despite industrial action being
rural areas, he said: “We examined all methods taken by workers throughout Iran’s oil and gas
of supplying gas to the rural areas, which took a sector, gas production has been unaffected (see:
year to study and research, and we came to the Iranian workers strike amid wage payment delays,
conclusion that connecting these areas to the page 8).
P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 31 05•August•2020