The Iranian Gas Transmission Company (NIGTC) says its nationwide pipeline network will be able to process an extra 110 million cubic meters per day of natural gas very soon.
NIGTC’s CEO Mehid Jamshidi Dana said on Saturday that the company will be able to pump the extra amount of gas through launching four new turbo-compressor units near Arsanjan in the southwestern province of Fars.
Jamshidi Dana said that lengthy and successful safety tests had been carried out on three of the turbo-compressor units, adding that one more compressor is being launched to further boost the gas transit capacity in the region.
“The full launch of these facilities boosts the stability of gas transit and as a result increases the supply of gas by 110 mcm (per day),” he said.
The announcement comes as Iran struggles to prevent a shortage in natural gas supplies to power plants and to the households in the upcoming winter a year after record consumption caused brief but recurrent power cuts in large cities across the country.
Figures by the Iranian Oil Ministry suggest that Iran’s actual capacity for production of natural gas has exceeded 1 billion cubic meters per day thanks to continued development works at South Pars, the world’s largest gas reserve which is shared between Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf.
However, latest data by NIGTC’s dispatching subsidiary shows that gas supplies delivered to the pipelines across Iran can peak at just above 800 mcm per day.
Arsanjan facilities are part of Iran’s fifth gas transit zone from which around 70% of the country’s natural gas output is transmitted.