He continued that each degree of falling temperature increases natural gas consumption by 25 mcm/d, indicating nonoptimal use of natural gas.
Referring to accomplishing maintenance to maximize gas production, the NIOC's chief said: We are not worried about our ability to produce maximum gas to meet the country's gas needs, but at the same time we demand people save gas consumption because, in the past years, several northern and northeastern cities of the country had trouble for having access to gas in winter.
If people save up to 10% in gas consumption, we can get through this year's cold period and have a suitable supply of gas for industries and power plants.
The volume of natural gas produced in the country is very high, he said, adding in Iran more than one billion cubic meters of gas is produced on a daily basis, ranking it among the three largest gas producers in the world, even though a high level of gas consumption sometimes bring difficulties for gas delivery to some sectors.