Tehran, September 27: Iran is to take measures including the storage of liquid gas to prevent a potential lack of natural gas for domestic consumption during the incoming winter.
“We expect a natural gas shortage of around 200 million cubic/meters during the incoming winter, but we hope to prevent a cutoff of gas flow by storage of needed gas for power plants and management of household consumption,” Iran’s Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi told reporters on Saturday.
He added that during a natural gas shortage in recent years, the Oil Ministry could handle the crisis by reducing the gas provided to some industries and power plants.
Earlier on Thursday, Iran announced plans to increase its natural gas output by one billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas per day after the inauguration of a new gas platform in the South Pars gas field.
Meanwhile, Iran’s deputy oil minister, Azizollah Ramezani, predicted on Wednesday that the country will increase its gas imports from Turkmenistan by 40 percent this winter.
“New estimates show that the gas imports from the northern neighboring country [of Turkmenistan] would jump by 40 percent by winter this year,” Mehr news agency quoted Ramezani as saying.
Earlier, Alireza Gharibi, managing director of Iran Gas Engineering and Development Company, said that the deal would prevent gas cuts similar to the 2008 cut off which left Iranians in 11 cities with poor or no heating.
Despite sitting on the world’s second-largest gas reserves, Iran has been too slow to develop its oil industry due to UN and US sanctions imposed on the country to bring its nuclear program to a halt.
The United States is putting oil and gas firms such as France’s Total under pressure to abandon Iran’s energy projects. Total Chief Christophe de Margerie has earlier said talks with Iran on developing the South Pars are advancing slowly due to the US pressure.
—–Agencies