The president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani officially inaugurated, during Iran’s Government Week, three major gas projects worth more than US$5.5 billion in a plan to develop and improve the gas dispatching center and the sixth and ninth national gas transmission lines, the first phase of Bushehr Petrochemicals and the 500 MW West Karun Combined Cycle Power Plant and its transmission lines and substation which were launched in the course of the week on a video call by Hassan Rouhani.
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The first of the Iran gas projects, the sixth national gas transportation line has a length of 1.2 kilometers and will transmit a maximum capacity of 110 million cubic meters of gas from South Pars through the provinces of Bushehr, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Ilam and Kermanshah to Dehgolan city in the Kurdistan province. The second gas project is the ninth national gas transmission line that is expected to have a capacity smaller than the previous transmission line, at 60 million cubic meters max., the line will be 125 kilometers long and will start 32 km west of Behbahan and extends to the border of Bazargan and northern Maku. The construction of these pipelines gives Iran an export advantage and plays an important role in energy exchanges with countries in the region, in addition to supplying gas to colder provinces in the country.
During the ceremony, Rouhani said that his administration has increased gas extraction from joint gas fields 2.5 times, while crude output from common oilfields has risen around 6 times. Oil output at joint oilfields has increased from 70,000 to 400,000 barrels per day, while daily gas production has reached nearly 1 billion cubic meters from 600 million cubic meters a day. Rouhani also said that “all phases of South Pars have been opened except one and also that the country has become self-sufficient in petrol and diesel,” adding that “the next government will start when the petrochemicals have risen from 56 million tonnes to 100 million tonnes and from $11 billion to $25 billion.”
