Iran loses nothing from Pakistan’s refusal to buy gas

Pakistan should have imported 22 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of Iranian gas since January 2015 based on an agreement, but it hasn’t even decided to build a pipeline.
Iran has stretched 907 km pipeline (IGAT-7) from South Pars gas field to Iranshar in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, but 200 km of is needed to reach the Pakistani border.
56-inch IGAT-7 pipeline is aimed to transit 110 mcm/d, but it is active with only one compressor, several times less than the other cross-country pipelines with the same capacity and length, which uses 8-17 compressors each. IGAT-7 would use 2 compressors in coming years.
Iran started the construction of a 36-inch branch from Iranshahr to Zahedan city in 2013. It aims to supply gas to 105,000 households in Zahedan city. According to the latest statistics about the country’s energy balance, published in 2015, some 6,500 households in the all of province were using only 6 mcm/y of gas, while the country’s total gas usage in households in Iran was 18.77 million using about 91 bcm in 2015. The gas network in the province also was 782 km, about 0.3 percent of the country’s total gas grid.
In total, the Sistan and Baluchestan Province includes more than 680,000 households. The residents of this poor province in Iran are using about 0.5 million cubic meters of firewood and biomass as well as 10,000 tons of LPG and 370 million liters of kerosene annually.
On the other hand, the province is located in a region with very low precipitation and all of its power plants are thermal with 1 gigawatt (GW) capacity in total, sharing 1.5% of total power capacity in the country.
Its power plants generate 3 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity which meets 63 percent of the power needs in the province. The power plants use about 67 mcm/y of gas, while Iran’s total gas consumption in power sector reaches above 58 bcm/y in total during 11 months of current fiscal year, started on March 21.
Liquid fuel usage in 2015
Gas oil
Million liters
Fuel oil
Million liters
Kerosene
Million liters
Natural gas
mcm
Sistan and Baluchestan’s Power plants
631.2
396.2
-
65.5
Total Sistan and Baluchestan Province
2,333
714.5
373.5
72
Total Iran
36,439
17,177
522.5
244,000

As the statistics indicate, Iran can prevent burning about 3.5 billion liters of liquid fuels by replacing natural gas annually. It would be result in saving at least $660 million in energy consumption of this province.
Iran also can construct new gas-fired power plants to meet both domestic needs and export it to Pakistan. Currently, Pakistan imports Iranian power.
On the other hand, Iran is planning to connect its strategic port Chabahar with IGAT- 7. The 36-inch pipeline would be stretched about 200 km from Iranshahr to Chabahar. Iran plans to construct power plants and petrochemical units in Chabahr, 80-km away Pakistan’s Gwadar port.
The pipeline can be connected to LNG deliquification terminals in Gwadar port in the future as well.
For now, with a gas compressors, Iran can operate the IGAT-7 pipeline with half of its capacity.

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