Record Gas Consumption in Iran and Oil Minister’s Request to Citizens: Wear Warm Clothes

The oil minister in Ibrahim Raisi’s government says that residential gas consumption in Iran has hit a record high and has asked citizens to wear warm clothes at home. Given the drop in air temperature, residential gas consumption in Iran is expected to increase further.

Javad Oji wrote on Sunday, February 23 on his personal Twitter account that in the past 24 hours, a “historic record” of 692 million cubic meters of gas consumption was registered in the residential, commercial, and small-scale industrial sectors.

He added that “the gas network is stable, but the continuation of these conditions requires the cooperation of our dear compatriots and consumption management.”

Two days earlier, Oji had also asked the public in an interview with Islamic Republic state television to manage gas consumption by wearing warm clothes at home and turning off heating devices when leaving home or the workplace.

This comes as with the possibility of further temperature drops in the coming weeks, gas consumption in the country is expected to increase.

Iran’s Oil and Gas Needs 160 Billion Dollars in Investment

In recent years, no report on investment in Iran’s oil and gas industries has been released by the Iranian government.

In one of the few official reports on this matter, the Islamic Consultative Assembly’s research center announced last August that investment in exploration and development of the country’s oil and gas fields has decreased from approximately 23 billion dollars in 2012 to approximately 3 billion dollars in 2018 and 2019.

Javad Oji, the oil minister in Ibrahim Raisi’s government, also reported last October that the country needs 160 billion dollars in investment in oil and gas industries and said that “if development is not funded, Iran will become an importer of oil and gas in the future.”

Iran also faced a gas shortage last year. This led some power plants to use fuel oil instead of gas. The consumption of fuel oil in power plants last year caused severe air pollution in several major cities of the country.

This year, however, gas shortages at some Iranian power plants began much earlier than last year, starting from the summer season.

All this while Iran, after Russia, is the second country with the largest natural gas reserves in the world and is also ranked as the fourth country in the world in terms of oil reserves.

Source: DW