For the past month, Iranian officials have been struggling with gas shortages and outages in the north and other parts of the country, where demand for energy is at high records due to unusually cold weather.
Iran, which has the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves, is struggling to meet domestic demand, especially in winter months when energy consumption rises to its highest levels.
In early January, Iran Oil minister Javad Owji said Iran was pumping gas into the national grid at full capacity and was close to reaching “peak gas consumption,” according to state TV.
In September 2022, Owji said in an interview that Europe should be worried that its industrial production and households would suffer due to reduced gas supplies from Russia due to sanctions in response to its invasion of Ukraine. He warned Europeans of a cold winter and potential gas shortages….