Referring to the advancement of natural gas storage projects and paying special attention to this issue in the current government, Reza Noshadi said: “In the last two years, we have been able to address the issue of gas storage, which had been forgotten for years, at the level of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), and the Oil Ministry, because this action is one of the tools for managing gas consumption during peak consumption in the country.”

Referring to the seven projects being implemented and followed up in this area, he stated that the activities of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company have now started in five gas fields, adding that the starting point of the development work was the second phase of Shourijeh field.

The managing director of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company further stated that the development of the Sarajeh gas field in Qom is one of the most desirable projects in the field of gas storage and the activities in this field have also started.

Iran has two major natural gas storage facilities in Sarajeh and Shourijeh, in which every year the National Iranian Gas Company stores the gas received from gas refineries all over the country to be used in the colder months of the year.

As one of the world’s top gas producers, Iran has been following a plan to expand its underground natural gas storage capacity to ensure that enough natural gas is available during peak demand periods to avoid electricity supply shortfalls in the future.

According to the National Iranian Gas Company’s plans, the capacity of the two storage facilities, Sarajeh and Shourijeh, is planned to increase to over seven billion cubic meters in the near future.

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In the energy sector of Uzbekistan, the stages of reform are continuing and, at the same time, the modernization and expansion of generating capacities. The purpose of this work is to transfer the industry to market relations, to update the infrastructure, the state of which has not received due attention in recent decades, to ensure the growing demand for energy resources of consumers in the Republic.

The ongoing successive reforms under the leadership of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev have raised the development of the country’s fuel and energy industry to a fundamentally new level. The creation in February 2019 of the Ministry of Energy, responsible for the management and development of the profile industry, contributed to the start of the process of pursuing a single coordinated and balanced energy policy of the country.

At a new stage in the development of the sector and in order to manage the industry, increase its competitiveness and investment attractiveness, the Ministry of Energy is taking measures to meet the need for energy resources, improve the mechanisms of public-private partnership, develop market mechanisms for the implementation of tariff policy, create conditions for attracting investments, reduce energy intensity economy, stimulating the introduction of energy-saving technologies and others.

As part of the ongoing reforms in the fuel and energy industry, a transition was also made to modern methods of organizing the production, transportation, distribution and sale of electricity by restructuring the activities of “Uzbekenergo” and revised the oil and gas system by restructuring the activities of “Uzbekneftegaz”.

In recent years, significant indicators of production growth and localization of products and exports have been achieved in the fuel and energy industry.

The process of forming a legal framework to ensure the country’s energy security and energy development based on a market economy is underway. The laws developed by the Ministry of Energy were adopted: “On the use of renewable energy sources”, “On amendments and additions to the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan” On the rational use of energy, as well as the Concept of providing the Republic of Uzbekistan with electric energy for 2020-2030.

The work on the creation of normative legal acts ensuring the transition of the energy sector to market rails continues.

The commissioning of new power plants, including thermal (TPP), solar or photovoltaic, wind (WPP), is in many ways an example of the market changes that are taking place in the energy sector of the country. Almost all new capacities to be commissioned are built on a fundamentally new public-private partnership (PPP) basis for the energy sector of Uzbekistan.

PPP-based projects are carried out on a tender, that is, a competitive market basis, while technical assistance to bring the best international experience in tendering is provided by the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group.

To date, a total of 13 power purchase agreements have been signed, which is a significant milestone in creating a competitive environment in the energy sector. Among the company’s independent energy producers are Total Eren SA (France), Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company – Masdar (UAE), Aksa Enerji Üretim A.Ş. (Turkey), ACWA Power (Saudi Arabia) and others.

Due to the increased attractiveness of the investment climate in Uzbekistan, there is no need to attract loans from foreign banks to large projects in the energy sector of the republic, under the guarantee of the government.

In accordance with the decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated March 27, 2019 “On the strategy for the further development and reform of the electric power industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan”, a Project Office was created under the Ministry of Energy, which, inter alia, works with international financial institutions, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, World Bank and Asian Development Bank. International experts with extensive experience in reforming the energy sectors of various countries were involved.

The Project Office experts have developed a Concept that includes a sequence of transition to the wholesale competitive electricity market, with the passage of three stages, in the period 2021-2025.

The transition to market relations in the energy sector with a radical reduction in the state’s share in it will serve to improve the management system of the electric power industry. As a result, the energy security of the country, the reliability and stability of the energy supply of the Republic of Uzbekistan will be ensured. The main thing is to improve the quality of life of the population.

On measures to stimulate the development of renewable energy sources in Uzbekistan:

Favorable geographic and climatic conditions of Uzbekistan make it possible to actively use the energy of the sun to obtain electric and thermal energy on an industrial scale. It is not only a promising source of renewable energy in terms of practical application, but also very convenient and easy to use.

It should be noted that the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree on the development of renewable and hydrogen energy in Uzbekistan on April 9, 2021.

The resolution is aimed at “creating the infrastructure of the republic’s hydrogen energy, increasing the effectiveness of scientific and practical research in the fields of renewable and hydrogen energy, the widespread introduction of innovative technologies into production, as well as ensuring the transition of the Republic of Uzbekistan to a green economy.”

In addition, during his speech on May 30, 2021 at the second international summit “Partnership for Green Growth and Global Goals – 2030”, held in Seoul, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev shared his vision of the prospects for international cooperation in the field of “green” recovery and outlined a number of new topical initiatives

One of the main topics that President Shavkat Mirziyoyev touched upon during his speech was the widespread use and development of renewable energy sources (RES) and the transition to decarbonization of the energy industry. In particular, it was stated that the implementation of projects in the field of “green” energy in Uzbekistan will allow in the next ten years to increase more than 3 times, that is, up to 25%, the share of electricity production using renewable energy sources.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev also put forward an initiative to hold an international conference “Green Energy for Developing Countries” in Uzbekistan in 2022, as well as launch a special program to attract young people to create a “green” economy to form a culture of green consumption.

In order to expand practical cooperation in this important area, the President declared Uzbekistan’s readiness to join the P4G Partnership and become its full-fledged participant.

Meanwhile, the Government of Uzbekistan has already launched a number of projects in the field of “green” energy.

In particular, on June 1, 2021, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev launched the construction of a solar photovoltaic station in the Surkhandarya region of Uzbekistan bordering Afghanistan.

The tender for the construction of a 457 MW plant was won by Masdar (UAE), which offered the lowest tariff. The tender was carried out with technical and financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank. As part of the project, Masdar will also build a new 220 kW substation and a 52-kilometer transmission line.

A plot of 601 hectares has been selected for the station. Masdar will attract US$260 million in direct investment. The station will have an annual production capacity of 1.04 billion kWh.

The implementation of the project will save 340 million cubic meters of natural gas per year, and 300,000 households will be supplied with electricity.

It is planned to build solar stations with a capacity of 200 megawatts in the Samarkand and Jizzakh regions, wind farms for 100 megawatts in the Beruniy and Karauzyak districts of Karakalpakstan, as well as 3 wind farms with a total capacity of 1,500 megawatts in Bukhara and Navoi.

Uzbekistan has set a goal to bring the capacity of solar power plants to 5,000, wind power plants to 3,000, and hydroelectric power plants to 4,000 megawatts by 2030.

Due to the availability of renewable energy sources in Uzbekistan, which do not have a negative impact on the environment, interest in the use of these types of energy will only grow in the near future. An increase in the use of renewable energy sources in all sectors of the economy will help, in the face of growth in the country’s GDP and population, to reduce the growing demand for fossil fuel and energy resources, reduce the country’s dependence on imported energy resources, and provide energy resources for new sectors of the economy.

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According to Jolaei, of the total gas consumption in the previous year, 122 billion cubic meters was consumed by domestic, commercial, and non-major industries, 24 billion cubic meters was the share of major industries and 66 billion cubic meters was allocated to power plants.

The official noted that during the past year, the consumption by domestic sector and power plants hit new record highs but NIGC managed to prevent any major blackouts even during the peak consumption periods.

The country’s power plants received an average of 167 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas per day in 1398, which reached 181 million cubic meters per day in the previous year, indicating a 5.1 billion increase in the power plants’ gas consumption.

According to Julaei, some 262 billion cubic meters of gas was injected into the national gas network in the previous year, registering a six-percent rise compared to 1398.

Mentioning the average gas consumption during the current Iranian calendar month (started on March 21), the official put the figure at 606 million cubic meters for Saturday, April 3.

Iran is currently producing over 810 mcm of natural gas on a daily basis which is mostly used inside the country for the domestic sector and also as fuel for the power plants and a small portion is also exported to neighboring countries like Iraq.

According to NIGC Managing Director Hasan Montazer Torbati, of the total produced gas, some 25 percent goes to household consumption, 37 percent is supplied to the power plants, 30 percent is used in the industry sector, four percent used as CNG and four percent is for other consumptions.

Montazer Torbati stated that gas supply has been developed significantly in the cities and villages of the country over the past seven years due to the increase in gas production in the South Pars gas field.

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That being said, there should be plenty of support just underneath, and I do think that eventually we will get an opportunity to go long again. The market tends to rally into the new year, due to more demand. Once we get past New Year’s Day though, then we start to focus on March contract, and that means that temperature readings in the United States will go higher, and therefore demand will drop. Ultimately, we eventually get to a high enough price that supplier start to flood the market with inventory as well, because they have been taking a beating for a while now.

“Natural Gas Weekly Price Forecast – Natural Gas Fills The Gap”

This in and of itself will keep a certain amount of a lid on this market, and I think it really comes down to the time of year you are trading. Right now, we are trying to go higher, but that does not mean it will be easy.

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On a national level, Oman has taken resolute measures to make its political presence leaner and more adaptable. Mohammed bin Hamad al-Rumhy who has led the sultanate’s energy ministry for 23 years already, has seen his influence increase as his office was extended into a new Ministry of Energy and Minerals. The anticipated 2020 IPO of OQ (the successor of Oman Oil, named after the deceased monarch), whereby the Omani national oil company would have become the second Gulf NOC to list its shares (not all though, 20-25% according to preliminary plans), was taken from the actual agenda as there seems to be very little probability Muscat can carry it out adequately given the current circumstances.

One of the most obvious ways to put a spin on Oman’s hydrocarbon production would be to examine its offshore areas more closely (and actively). Despite being an oil exporter for more than 6 decades, Oman’s heretofore only notable offshore project was the Bukha field – it produced some 285 BCf over the course of its 25 years’ production. The Bukha-Henjam field was located on the Omani-Iranian maritime boundary and was developed according to the frontier split; all of Oman’s production went to the UAE as the field itself was connected to the Emirati port of Khor Khwair by a 35km subsea pipeline. As Bukha entered terminal decline, there remained little to look forward to, despite oft-repeated claims that the Strait of Hormuz could unearth several major discoveries.

On the back of Oman’s onshore oil production maturing, Muscat was looking forward to 2020 as the year when it could finally boast of sizeable offshore discoveries. Reality, however, turned out to be much less inclined to daydreaming – more than 100 exploration wells were drilled in 2019 yet only one of them was spudded in the country’s offshore. Of the 6 seismic surveys conducted last year, once again, just one was offshore. Anticipation is great, however, regarding offshore drilling on the back of media rumors spinning ENI’s Fanar-1 exploration well as a harbinger of offshore discoveries to come (even though the well’s official results are still yet to be issued). What 2020 did provide was a major gas breakthrough – not an entirely unexpected one as Ghazeer’s launch was planned for 2021 yet certainly one that deserves a special mention.  The commissioning of the Ghazeer project 4 months ahead of schedule might become a harbinger of good things to come, namely that Oman’s gas projects will mitigate the effects of oil stagnation. Ghazeer constitutes the 2nd phase of the giant Khazzan-Makarem gas field, one of the top tight gas development in the Persian Gulf region. The total proven reserves of Khazzan-Makarem stand at 100 TCf (2.8 TCm), although the recoverable reserves tally will very much depend on how BP, the project’s operator, will technologically manage to extract tight gas from the Ordovician to Proterozoic deposits. Phase 1 of Khazzan-Makarem started almost exactly 3 years ago amid intense horizontal drilling (an estimated 90% of the 300 wells assumed to be drilled in Block 61 will be horizontal, BP claims), taking the field’s gas production to almost 1 BCf/day.

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Electricity generation from renewables in the country has also led to economizing on the consumption of water by over one billion cubic meters, IRNA reported on Sunday, quoting Reza Samadi as saying.

Using renewable energy sources will also reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and this will significantly reduce air and land pollution, Samadi said.

According to the official, the country’s total power generation capacity currently stands at 85 gigawatts (GW), only 840 megawatts of which is produced by renewable power plants.

In late December 2019, SATBA reported that renewable sources prevented the emission of Green House Gases (GHG) in Iran by 3,048 tons during the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 22-December 21).

Based on the report, Electricity generation from renewables in the mentioned period also prevented the consumption of 1.263 billion cubic meters of fossil fuels in the country.

As reported, currently, 377 MW capacity of renewable power plants are under construction across the country and the installed capacity of such power plants has reached 849 MW.

The data also indicates that so far, 118 MW capacity of large-scale power plants are installed in the country and another 37 MW are under construction.
Renewable power plants, including hydropower, account for just six percent of energy generation, versus natural gas 90 percent share.

Overall, in the next five years, Iran is aiming for a 5,000 MW increase in renewable capacity to meet growing domestic demand and expand its presence in the regional electricity market.

According to SATBA, the number of small scale solar power plants across the country which are used by households or small industries is being increased noticeably as Iranian households and small industries have embraced the new technology with open arms and investors also seem eager for more contribution in this area.

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An Oil Ministry contractor said on Thursday that extraction of natural gas had started overnight in the third drilling rig at Phase 14 of South Pars, the largest gas field in the world which is shared between Iran and Qatar, Press TV reported.

Mohammad-Mehdi Tavasolipour said production from the 14B drilling rig would reach a full capacity of 14.2 mcm within the next few days, adding that the gas produced in the field will be transferred through a five-kilometer pipeline to a refinery in the adjacent Phase 12 of South Pars.

“As the cold season draws near and the country needs winter fuel, the 14B rig came on line based on a pre-existing schedule to meet a part of the growing demand for gas,” said the contractor.

The start of production at the new rig in the South Pars would bring Iran’s output from the offshore section of the giant gas field to 42 mcm (1.5 billion cubic feet) a day. Total production from South Pars is planned to reach 650 mcm by March as Iran seeks to completely outdo Qatar in the shared gas field.

It comes nearly six months after Iran successfully installed the drilling rig, a super-size structure hailed at the time as a sign of Iran’s capability to counter the harsh US sanctions on the country’s energy sector.

Additional raw materials that would be obtained from gas production at the rig include some 20,000 barrels per day of condensates, some 100,000 tons a day of sulfur, 250,000 tons per year of liquefied petroleum gas and a similar amount of ethane, said Tavasolipour.

The National Iranian Oil Company’s head of Exploration, Saleh Hendi, said in October that his company had discovered a new deposit after a year of continuous exploration in southern Iran.

Hendi added that the gas was struck at a depth of 3,900 meters and that the deposit that was tapped contained enough energy to provide power to the whole of Tehran, which has a population of 12 million, over a period of 16 years.

The report comes on the heels of news that China’s CNPC had pulled out from the South Pars Phase 11 project, which was supposed to be led by French Total.

Total left Iran last year after US sanctions snapped back, leaving CNPC with the opportunity to gain a majority in the project. According to Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, however, this did not happen, and the Chinese company pulled out, too, leaving local Petropars solely responsible for the project.

There have been numerous reports from official Iranian news outlets about continued oil and gas exploration in defiance of US sanctions.

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Iran’s natural gas output currently stands at 800 million cubic meters per day, a senior energy official said Saturday.

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