Iran Must Save More Energy: Officials
A senior Iranian official warned of an impending energy crisis in the country January 9, saying that energy intensity is 2.5 times the global average and 10 times more than in progressive economies.
The head of the industrial development and renovation organisation of Iran (IDRO) Abolfazl Kiani said that the country would otherwise face a “serious energy crisis” in less than ten years.
According to state broadcaster IRIB, he said that the energy intensity index is about 65% and growing by 5.5%/yr.
According to the latest International Energy Agency report (for 2015), Iran’s energy intensity index is one of the highest in the world and twice the world average, and has been rising on average by about 3.4%/yr over the past 40 years. Energy intensity measures the amount of primary energy supply a country needs to generate a unit of gross domestic product (GDP).
The head of the energy technology study institute Hamed Houri Jafari also said that only 3.6mn boe/d of the total demand of 5mn boe/d of primary energy in Iran reaches the final consumer. “About 2.2mn boe/d are being wasted during production, processing, distribution or converting to power,” he added. Natural gas accounts for 70% of Iran’s total primary energy supply. The average gas-fired plant operates at about 30% efficiency, which is about half as efficient as the best available.
He said that households use 1mn boe/d; industry, 905,000 boe/d; and transport uses 873,000 boe/d.
According to an official document from the oil ministry, seen by NGW, the country flared about 17.8bn m3 gas during 2017, which is equal to about 126mn boe/yr. The official document says that beside associated gas, some 20mn m3/d (45.5mn boe/yr) of dry gas is also being lost and wasted in processing units, of which 70% comes from the giant South Pars plants.
Iran ranks seventh in terms of greenhouse emissions, with 672mn mt/yr of CO2, of which 35mn mt are due to gas flaring, according to Global Carbon Project. Iran’s thermal power plants with very low efficiency also wasted 310.5mn boe during 2017.
According to energy ministry’s official statistics, Iran’s power plants consumed 57.3bn m3 of natural gas (5.7% growth year-on-year) as well as 3.78bn litres of diesel and fuel oil (25% decline y/y) during the first nine months of the current fiscal year, March 21-December 22, 2018. The distribution systems also lose about a fifth of the natural gas and power they carry. The energy waste in oil and gas condensate production, refining, storing and distribution processes is also huge.
Iran had planned in 2015 to invest $200bn by 2030 to halve energy intensity in order to save $870bn, but the situation has been worsening and new sanctions that the US has imposed have cast doubt on these plans. But if they did pan out as hoped, Iran would save 5bn boe cumulatively from 2015-2030.