According to the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Ahmad Zera’atkar made the remarks at the third meeting on resolving challenges facing operator companies holding Type 2 contracts. The meeting was held by video link and attended by senior oil and gas managers, representatives of the operator companies and the managing directors of provincial gas companies. He said NIGC's guiding approach has entered a new, transformative phase: whereas its work in past decades focused solely on expanding gas pipelines and distribution networks, it has now been elevated to the level of a core regulator.

He added that, under the new structure, direct management of energy consumption nationwide is being carried out in coordination with more than 30 provincial gas companies and all their subsidiary units.

Pointing to the need for NIGC to intervene systematically in the pillars of gas consumption, the deputy minister said this shift has been organised around the capacities, creativity and financial resources of the non-state sector. Bringing in innovative ideas, the expertise of university specialists and private capital, he said, creates the ground for resolving long-standing problems of excessive consumption.

Explaining how the current approach differs from past decades, Zera’atkar said that for some 28 years the topic of gas optimisation and saving mostly stayed within conferences and theoretical discussion. Today, with operational integration between headquarters and the provincial network, real optimisation has reached the implementation stage, and efforts are under way for its effects to show this winter.

Data governance as a prerequisite

Stressing the implementation of data governance, he noted that developing platform-based systems, deploying IT tools and establishing the foundations of data governance are essential preconditions for the "popularising gas consumption" ("mardomi-sazi") project, to be carried out through the operator companies. The aim, he said, is to link public culture with the new economic structures in step with public cooperation.

Detailing the strategy, the deputy minister said the project's core goal is to engage the millions of gas subscribers so that the intangible value of saving is turned, through the operators' platform mechanisms, into an economic and commercial model, with subscribers directly benefiting from the financial returns of reduced consumption.

Smart redistribution of energy resources

Zera’atkar said that gas saved and freed up through household participation and optimisation in non-productive sectors, such as residential, public and commercial use, will be redirected immediately to productive sectors, so that economic growth and job creation are not disrupted in the cold months of the year.

He noted that energy regulation models have a scientific pedigree and an established framework in global demand-management experience, and that gas industry specialists, by localising this body of knowledge, have created conditions for household subscribers' interests, the returns of non-state investors and sovereign objectives to be served together in a multilateral win-win model.

The deputy minister also announced the launch of an "Operator Service Desk," designed to remove administrative obstacles, speed up technical processes and data exchange, and ease cooperation between provincial gas companies and the private sector, so that operator companies can pursue their development plans without hindrance.