Growing energy consupmtion leads Iran to energy importer position - minister

Iran, with its current increasing energy consumption tendency, will become an energy importing country in 20 years, Iranian Roads and Urban Development Minister, Abbas Akhoundi said, IRNA news agency reported on Feb. 8.

Akhuondi made the remarks at the Iran-Germany workshop of 'Young Cities - Developing Urban Energy Efficiency' in Tehran.

He went on to say that Iran's energy consumption increases on average by 1.6 percent each year.

Currently, about 40 percent of the country's total energy consumption is related to the domestic and commercial sectors, the minister added.

The high level of energy consumption is a result of inappropriate design of cities and buildings, he underlined.

Iran's average domestic gas consumption stood at about 570 million cubic meters in the past few days.

The head of the Iranian Oil Industry Research Center, Hamidreza Katouzian warned on December 17 that Iran's domestic gas consumption will reach 2.5 billion cubic meters per day by 2025, if the current tendency continues, according to the Iranian Shana News Agency.

"Currently Iran's domestic consumption is equal to the total consumption of industries in Europe," he explained.

Iran's dried gas output is about 160 billion cubic meters, a little more than domestic consumption level, according to the BP's latest yearly report.

Iran exported 7.5 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey and imported 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan in 2012, the BP said.


/Trend/