Iran: after strikes on its gas installations, Tehran calls to reduce gas consumption by 10% before winter

The head of the Iranian Parliament on Sunday called on the population to reduce their gas consumption by 10% as winter approaches, in order to limit tensions on supplies during the cold season. Iran has long faced shortages of natural gas, essential for heating, aggravated by the war sparked at the end of February by an Israeli-American attack. “To get through the approaching winter, national mobilization is essential (...

) in order to reduce gas consumption by at least 10%,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a video broadcast by local media. Temperatures often drop below 0°C in winter in Iran, especially in the north of the country. “Anyone who saves fuel, regardless of the volume, will immediately receive the corresponding amount in their bank account,” Mr.

Ghalibaf. After the start of the war, gas installations, particularly in the south of the country, were targeted by American strikes which put refineries out of service, according to the government. Daily deficit of 100 to 250 million cubic meters of gas during the cold season At the beginning of October, Iran's first vice-president, Mohammad Reza Aref, indicated that the government expected a daily deficit of 100 to 250 million cubic meters of gas during the cold season, due to the damage caused by the war, according to the official Irna news agency.

A ceasefire in April ended nearly 40 days of intense bombardment, and a memorandum of understanding to definitively end the conflict was concluded in June, but it collapsed in July. Negotiations have since stalled. While the strikes have almost stopped in recent weeks, the conflict is now crystallizing around the strategic Strait of Hormuz, over which Iran claims control.

The United States, which is imposing a blockade of Iranian ports, says it wants to increase economic pressure on Iran, already under international sanctions for decades.

Machine-translated from French