Iran to Liberalize Gas Price for Power

Iran wants to increase the gas price for power plants operated by the private sector that are going to export electricity, the deputy oil minister for planning and supervision on hydrocarbon resources Mohammad Mehdi Rahmati said.

“The formula for selling gas to power plants which export electricity to the neighbouring countries should be the same as the formula for exporting gas to the same countries,” Shana news agency quoted Rahmati as saying on February 8.

According to unofficial figures, Turkey paid $490/'000 m³ for Iranian gas in 2014. However, Hurriyyet reported last week that this figure is $225/'000 m³. Former managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Javad Owji announced in July 2013 that the gas price for Iraq is same to Turkey. Iran has not published recent prices for gas sold to power plants but in 2013 it was just $22.85/'000 m³.

He added that Iran will export 25mn m³/d to Baghdad and earn $11 million. Therefore, in mid-2013, Iran's gas price for Iraq was $440/'000 m³.

Iran delivered 48.978bn m³ to its power plants in the past Iranian fiscal year, ended on March 20, 2015. Since the beginning of the current year till January 29, the power plants received 49.594bn m³, according to Iran Power Transmission, Generation and Distribution Company.

Iran’s power generation capacity is 73.758 GW. Household, agriculture, and industrial sectors account for 34.9%, 17%, and 30% of electricity demand.

Iran exported 9.965 TWh of electricity in the past Iranian fiscal year (March 2014-March 2015), to Armenia, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, and Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, compared with 11.586 TWh the year before.

Since the start of the current Iranian fiscal year till January 29, the country has exported 8.839 TWh of electricity, up 4% compared with the  same period last year.

Iran desk