Iranian Household Gas Demand Back to Normal
Iran's household gas demand has returned to the usual level, national gas company NIGC announced on March 16, following a spike over winter because of cold weather.
Residential gas consumption began rising steeply in December as a result of lower temperatures, hitting a record 599mn m3/d in the week ending January 19, versus an average of 530mn m3/d in January last year. It hit 625mn m3 on some days in February.
Demand is now around 370mn m3/d, NIGC said, adding that deliveries to industrial users and the power sector were at the usual level.
Soaring residential consumption led to Iran cutting gas exports to Iraq from 28mn m3/d to around 3mn m3/d last month. NIGC did not say whether Iranian deliveries had returned to the normal level, but the US extended waivers allowing Iraq to import 28mn m3/d of Iranian gas on March 3.
It is unclear whether Iran's sales to Turkey were affected, as neither Ankara nor Tehran have reported 2020 statistics yet.
Iranian officials claim that five new platforms have been installed at the giant South Pars gas field since March last year, providing an extra 70mn m3/d of gas supply. But recent shortages suggest otherwise.
Officials have provided contradictory figures for output in the past. Oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said last August that daily production at South Pars had reached 750mn m3, but the project’s operating company later reported flows of only 630mn m3.
According to official statistics obtained by NGW, Iran injected 652.6mn m3/d into the grid on average in the fiscal year ending March 21 2019. Meanwhile BP estimates that Iran produced 656mn m3/d of gas in 2018, up 8.8% year on year.