Gas supply to "80%" of Iranian cement factories has been cut off

The secretary of the Iranian Cement Industry Employers' Association says that out of 76 cement factories, 60 have had their gas cut off.

Abdolreza Sheikhan told ILNA news agency on Thursday, December 24, that the third phase of the gas outage will begin today, during which gas supply will continue to only 16 cement companies, and gas will be cut off to the rest of the companies.

He said that some factories in Tehran, Alborz, and some factories in the south of the country will still have gas.

According to the secretary of the Cement Industry Employers' Association, the first phase of cutting off gas to cement factories began on November 5, when out of 76 cement companies, gas was cut off to 15 factories in the north and east of the country, as well as Azerbaijan.

"In the second phase, which began on November 15, gas was cut off to 24 more factories. The third phase of gas outages begins today, during which gas supply will continue to only 16 companies and gas will be cut off to the rest of the companies."

Iran is facing a severe gas deficit due to the lack of development of gas projects this year, as well as the continued significant loss of gas in the network.

Iranian Oil Minister Javad Oji recently announced that a gas deficit of 200 million cubic meters per day is expected in the winter. Iran's gas production, including gas extraction from underground gas storage facilities in Shurijeh and Sarajeh, is a little over 800 million cubic meters per day this winter.

According to Iran's Oil Minister, the country's gas production is not expected to increase this year, and the gas deficit will be much greater than last year.

In the cold seasons of the year, Iran always faces a gas deficit due to increased household, commercial, and non-major industrial consumption, and gas delivery to industries and power plants is limited; but this year, the gas deficit is extremely high.

This is while, according to World Bank statistics, about 50 million cubic meters of gas produced daily by Iran from oil fields (associated gas) is burned and wasted at the same production stage due to the lack of gas collection equipment.

Also, the amount of gas losses in the transmission and distribution network is about 11 million cubic meters per day.

Statistics from the National Gas Company show that domestic gas consumption during the current days was about 748 million cubic meters, of which 521 million cubic meters were accounted for by the household, commercial, and small industries; major industries consumed 129 million cubic meters, and power plants consumed 98 million cubic meters per day.

The delivery of only 98 million cubic meters of gas to power plants, while the natural need for this sector for gas is about 280 million cubic meters per day. Thus, two-thirds of Iran's power plants are currently operating with diesel and mazut, which is especially highly polluting.

Mr. Sheikhan said that some cement factories have succeeded in receiving fuel oil reserves from the government to compensate for the gas outage, but others have not been able to.

He said that in the last month or two, efforts were made to obtain diesel fuel from the government, but because power plants, petrochemical plants, and steel factories also have gas problems, priority was given to supplying diesel fuel to power plants and some industrial factories.

The secretary of the Cement Industry Employers' Association stated: "Since the gas outage, every phase where gas was cut off has started burning diesel fuel."

Source: Radio Farda