A fallacy in comparing the gas consumption of Iran and Europe
Officials of the Islamic Republic have repeatedly spoken about "equality of gas consumption between Iran and the European Union" and constantly complain about the high consumption of gas by citizens. This issue has even been reflected in non-governmental reports such as the Majlis Research Center and Iran's research institutions, the most recent example of which is the report of the Economic Research Deputy of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce. This institution has claimed that "the consumption of natural gas in Iran is equivalent to half of the gas consumption in the European continent".
Iran consumes 240 billion cubic meters of gas annually, which is roughly equivalent to 60% of the gas consumption of 27 European Union members and almost a quarter of the European continent.
Fallacy in a comparison
Iranian officials' statements about the country's high consumption of gas and its comparison with foreign countries, while they do not mention the consumption of other types of energy in Iran and foreign countries.
For example, it is true that Iran's gas consumption is three times that of Germany, the largest gas consumer of the European Union, but Germany's production of renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.) is 123 times that of Iran. Also, the production of hydroelectric power in Germany is twice that of Iran, and the production of nuclear power is five times that of Iran, and the consumption of coal in Germany is also 29 times that of Iran.
In fact, the main reason for Iran's higher gas consumption than Germany is that, like this European country, it does not have energy diversity and 68% of the country's total energy consumption depends on gas.
Another example: Türkiye is Iran's neighbor with a similar population. Iran consumes five times more gas than Turkey, but on the other hand, Turkey consumes 35 times more solar and wind energy than Iran, 9 times more hydropower than Iran, and 22 times more coal.
The facts of Iran's gas field
Statistics of the International Energy Agency show that 25 billion cubic meters of Iran's produced gas is wasted in the production, transmission and distribution stages. This figure alone is equivalent to half of Türkiye's total gas consumption. The value of this volume of annual gas losses is about 10 billion dollars at current world market prices.
On the other hand, Iran annually delivers 70 billion cubic meters of gas to power plants with a low efficiency of 33%. In other words, one third of Iran's gas consumption is used in these power plants, and due to the low efficiency of the power plants, a significant part of the delivered gas is wasted in the process of converting it into electricity.
In comparison, the gas consumption of Iran's electric power plants is approximately one and a half times the total gas consumption of Turkey.
While in Turkey, half of the country's electricity is produced from solar, wind, biomass and hydropower plants, the share of these plants in Iran's electricity production is about seven percent.
On the other hand, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Energy and the Majlis Research Center, 13% of the electricity produced in the country is wasted in the outdated and old transmission and distribution network, which amounts to nearly 50 terawatt hours per year. Such a huge figure in electricity waste is equivalent to half of the electricity consumed by Iranian households.
https://www.dw.com/fa-ir/مغالطه-در-مقایسه-مصرف-گاز-ایران-و-اروپا/a-67682642
www.radiofarda.com
?
