Tehran Times – Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) said the country's two western gas pipelines, namely the sixth and ninth pipelines, will soon be officially inaugurated by President Rouhani, IRIB reported.

“Five gas pressure boosting stations have been established along the pipeline which will ensure both gas exports and supply stability,” Hassan Montazer Torbati said.

According to the official, construction of the sixth line of the national gas network created more than 5,000 direct job opportunities while supporting the region’s related industries including steel industry, as well as transportation and machinery services.

The sixth line of Iran’s national gas network is more than 1200 kilometers long, carrying gas from South Pars field in the Persian Gulf through the provinces of Bushehr, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Ilam and Kermanshah to the city of Dehgolan in Kurdistan province. The 5-inch-diameter pipeline carries 110 million cubic meters of gas from the south to the northwest of the country on a daily basis.

Back in July, head of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company (IGEDC) said the company plans to build 800 kilometers of pipelines for gas transmission by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2020).

According to Bahram Salavati, installing new pressure boosting facilities in the national network’s main pipelines was also on the company’s agenda.

In early May, Salavati had said that IGEDC was planning to connect 4,100 kilometers of new gas pipelines to the country’s national network by 2025.

The official said the company had also outsourced construction of 2,000 km of gas pipelines to private developers.

Most of the mentioned pipelines are aimed to connect the country’s rural areas to the national gas network.

Meanwhile, NIGC’s Gas Distribution Director Saeid Momeni said 73.6 percent of the country’s rural areas have been connected to the national gas network in the current Iranian calendar year’s first quarter (March 21-June 21).

According to the official, NIGC has it on the agenda to supply gas to 10 villages every month. That means by the end of the current year 3600 villages will be connected to the gas network.

The number of the cities connected to the national gas network, has also increased to 1117, which is 96.9 percent of the country’s total urban areas.