Iran Faces Gas Shortage on Low Temperatures
Iran’s housing gas demand reached an historic record of 573mn m3/d last week, strangling supplies to other sectors, the Iranian gas company announced January 13.
Domestic heating demand was 42% more than in the same period in 2019 then thanks to sub-zero temperatures in 21 of Iran's 31 provinces.
The report did not give total supply and demand figures but last month the country's demand was 690mn m³/d of which 513 mn m³/d was for housing, 50mn m³/d was for power generation (down 60%) and 127mn m³/d was for industry (down 58%).
Officials have said three new platforms have been launched in the giant South Pars gas field in the last few months, each of which has 14mn m3/d capacity. But new statistics show that Iran compensated for the rise in housing demand by hacking back supplies to other sectors.
It is not clear whether the country’s gas export volume to Turkey and Iraq has faced disruption or not. Turkish market regulator Emra says gas import from Iran reached 6.127bn m3 in 10 months of 2019, only 2% less than 2018.
The latest statistics, released by NIGC also indicate the country exported 19mn m3/d to Iraq in May 2019, almost twice what it exported in May 2018. Iran’s gas injection to the grid in last winter (including withdrawals from storage and imports/exports) was around 730mn m3/d.
Iran has stopped releasing foreign gas trade statistics since May 2019, but Iran’s government expects to earn $4bn in revenues from gas exports in the next fiscal year beginning March 21, which is 17% more than in the current year, according to a budget bill the government has submitted to parliament.