Iran’s Expansion of CNG Network Helping LPG Exports

Iran’s revenues from liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is significantly rising as the country has addressed the domestic need to energy with linking homes and industries to the natural gas network.

Head of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Hossein Torbati said on Tuesday that an investment of around $4 billion in Iran’s natural gas network had saved the country more than $9 billion mainly through the creation of new LPG export capacity.

Iran’s gas pipelines have reached thousands of towns and villages, many of them in remote areas, over the past years, allowing refineries to supply customers in countries as far as China with LPG, an oil product which has a high demand in industries, households and even in transportation where it is used as popular fuel.

Torbati said replacing each liter of LPG consumed in Iran with one cubic meter of natural gas leads to $0.3 in new exports income, adding that expansion of natural gas network had also enabled Iran to open new gas export terminals on the border with Iraq.

He said consuming more natural gas by households and industries across Iran also means more care for environment protection.

Iran has managed to develop its natural gas infrastructure at a rapid pace over the past year despite a harsh regime of sanctions imposed by the United States which aims to stifle any progress in the country’s oil and gas industry.

International analysts believe US sanctions on Iran have helped the country increase its oil product exports, including for LPG.

They believe the bans have even backfired on the US as they have enabled Iran to outdo the Americans in supplying LPG to China.

Iran is currently exporting over half a million ton of LPG to China each month, pocketing more than $200 million in revenues.

On Sunday, the last offshore platform belonging to Phase 14 of the South Pars Gas Field was loaded at the yard of Iran Marine Industrial Company (SADRA).

“The operation to load the structure was carried out at SADRA yard,” the caretaker of platforms C and D of Phase 14 of the joint gas field, Reza Qaribi, said.

South Pars field is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.