According to the National Iranian Gas Company, CEO Saeid Tavakoli said Saturday that about 860 million cubic meters of natural gas are currently delivered daily to the country’s high-pressure transmission lines. Of that amount, nearly 660 million cubic meters are consumed by households, commercial users and small industries. During winter, he said, these sectors account for a significant share of total gas deliveries.

Tavakoli said the volume of gas delivered to the network is fixed. When consumption by households, commercial users and small industries exceeds about 435 million cubic meters per day, the company is forced to impose restrictions on other consumers. Gas supply to power plants is prioritized as much as possible, he said, but limits are unavoidable for large industries that typically operate under contracts covering eight months of the warm season and four months of the cold season.

Household demand management a decisive factor

Tavakoli said household consumption management is critical, noting that lowering indoor temperatures by just 2 degrees Celsius can save about 50 million cubic meters of gas per day.

He said maintaining indoor temperatures between 18 and 21 degrees Celsius, sealing and insulating evaporative cooler vents, preventing heat loss, setting boiler rooms or package heaters between 50 and 60 degrees Celsius, and using curtains are simple but highly effective measures. Such steps, he said, can generate meaningful savings during a season when about 75% to 80% of the country’s gas is consumed by households, allowing more gas to be allocated to productive and industrial sectors.

Tavakoli said changes in approach are important, but consumer behavior and the development of proper infrastructure in both industry and households are even more critical. In industry, he said, prioritizing higher energy-efficiency ratings when purchasing equipment and building infrastructure directly improves production processes and boosts efficiency. The same approach applies to improving the efficiency of power plants, which are among the country’s largest gas consumers.

High-efficiency heaters and energy optimization

The deputy oil minister for gas affairs said one of the key household initiatives this year is a contract to supply 1.75 million high-efficiency heaters, adding that replacing low-efficiency heaters with high-efficiency equipment has a significant impact on reducing consumption and optimizing energy use.

Tavakoli also pointed to a nationwide boiler room optimization project covering more than 110,000 sites, along with the rollout of smart boiler room controls. These efforts coincide with government inspections of public institutions and enforcement of indoor temperature limits of about 20 degrees Celsius. Together, he said, these measures form a unified strategy to manage consumption and improve energy efficiency, with clear benefits for the economy, the environment and the reliability of energy supplies.

He added that the country’s gas production and consumption are geographically imbalanced, with about 70% to 77% of production occurring in the south, while roughly 90% to 92% of consumption takes place from central provinces northward. That imbalance, he said, underscores the high costs of producing, transporting and maintaining the gas network to deliver fuel to consumers.