Iran's seasonal gas supply shortfall has widened further after strikes by the United States and Israel damaged gas processing plants and other energy infrastructure. The Iranian government has now urged the public to conserve heavily subsidized natural gas.
First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref this week called on citizens to cooperate with energy-saving measures to keep the gas pipeline network stable and ensure supply to "cold and remote areas" is not interrupted during winter. He said users who exceed their gas quotas will face higher prices and warned that those who "ignore the warnings" will have their gas cut off. Earlier, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf proposed a nationwide campaign to cut natural gas consumption by 10%. To reduce fuel consumption and ease traffic pressure, the government has also required public employees whose jobs can be done remotely to work from home at least two days a week.
The U.S. and Israeli strikes launched against Iran since February have severely damaged the gas processing facilities on which Iran's energy system depends. In March, airstrikes on the processing plant tied to the South Pars gas field reduced the field's daily output by about one-fifth compared with its pre-war record. Data from Iran's Oil Ministry showed that before the war, South Pars produced 1.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas per day. South Pars is the world's largest gas field, jointly owned by Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf.
Iran's energy authorities say less than half of the damaged capacity has been restored so far, and the country's average daily domestic gas shortfall has reached about 400 million cubic meters this year, higher than in previous years. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the attacks on the country's energy infrastructure while calling for new international investment. Speaking Tuesday at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Moscow, he said: "The attacks have destroyed Iran's energy facilities and disrupted fuel flows, already endangering global energy security and the world economy."
Iran has an annual gas production capacity of about 300 billion cubic meters, making it the world's third-largest natural gas producer. But because the government subsidizes gas to keep prices low for its 90 million people, almost all of its output is consumed domestically. Iran exports 13 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, mainly to Turkey and Iraq. Sanctions, insufficient investment, and a long-term imbalance between processing capacity and domestic demand have been chronic problems for Iran for years, and the war has made this crisis worse.
Iran has been negotiating agreements to import natural gas from Russia, and the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding as early as 2024. Under that memorandum, Tehran plans to import 55 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year over the long term via Azerbaijan, with some of it potentially re-exported to neighboring countries, fitting Iran's goal of becoming a regional gas trading hub. Iran's acting Oil Minister Hamid Bovard said Monday in Moscow that negotiations on a final version of the Iran-Russia gas trade agreement are moving forward. Former Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad resigned this month without a public reason, and Bovard succeeded him. The personnel change came at a sensitive moment: due to the United States' months-long blockade of Iran's southern ports, Iran's crude oil exports have fallen to nearly zero.
Bringing in Russian gas is expected to ease Iran's domestic supply gap, especially in northern provinces, where winter temperatures drop to freezing and it is difficult to deliver gas produced by southern fields. But it remains uncertain whether the first shipments of Russian gas can arrive in time to ease this winter's shortage.
Natural gas is the mainstay of Iran's domestic energy mix, with gas-fired power plants accounting for 80% of the country's electricity generation. That means any interruption in gas supply will also spill over into electricity supply. In past years, whenever winter gas supply was severely insufficient, Iranian power plants switched to highly polluting heavy fuel oil. During summer peak electricity demand, the government often implements rolling blackouts; in winter, it cuts industrial gas use to prioritize residential heating. Hamid Pourmohammadi, head of Iran's Plan and Budget Organization, warned this month that if pipeline pressure continues to fall this winter, gas cutoffs could expand from scattered households to entire cities.
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