Gas production in Khangiran Gas Field in Khorasan Razavi Province will increase by 1.4 million cubic meters per day by next March, managing director of the East Oil and Gas Production Company said.
“A new well will become operational this year and three more will be drilled in the future,” Farshid Kheibari was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The EOGPC, a subsidiary of Iranian Central Oil Fields Company, is in charge of supplying gas to the northeast including Khorasan region (north, south and Razavi provinces), in addition to Semnan, Golestan and Mazandaran provinces.
Located near the border with Turkmenistan, the Khangiran field has a proven reserve of around 480 billion cubic meters. Consisting of 32 wells, the field has been operating since the late 1970s. EOGPC data show the field's current extraction is 17 mcm per day.
Kheibari said natural gas stored in Shourijeh underground facility in the region has increased compared to the previous years.
“During the first 8 months of the last calendar year, 1.85 billion cubic meters of gas was pumped into the Shourijeh reservoir in Sarakhs County -- up 28% compared to the same period a year ago,” he added. The increase contributed to the stability of gas supply in the cold season.
As a routine procedure, gas is injected into the reservoirs in the first eight months of the Iranian year and used in the last four.
Currently, Shourijeh reservoir in the northeast and Sarajeh reservoir in the central Qom Province are the only natural gas storage facilities in Iran.
As a leading gas producer, Iran is expanding its underground gas inventory with plans to increase the capacityin Sarajeh and Shourijeh. Plans are underway to add five facilities to secure uninterrupted supply, especially in the cold season.
Refinery in Kermanshah
In related news, IRNA said construction of a gas refinery will start by mid-summer in Gilan-e-Gharb County in Kermanshah Province. It will cost $2 billion and stretch over 100 hectares.
The facility is designed to produce 8 million cubic meters of gas per day from Babaghir and Bistun fields in the western region.
According to government data, daily gas production is 1 billion cubic meters and will increase by 10% in July. The rise will come mainly from phases 13 and 14 of South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, which are not fully operational yet.
Consumption in household and commercial sectors accounts for 70% of the total output (1 bcm/d) and close to 230 million cubic meters per day of gas are delivered to power plants and petrochemical plants.
Of the total output, close to 70 mcm/d are sold to neighboring states, namely Iraq and Turkey. Armenia and Azerbaijan also buy gas via swap deals.
Iran and Russia hold the largest proven gas reserves in the world, with 34 trillion cubic meters and 32.6 tcm of gas in place respectively.
Surveys on hydrocarbon fields show that Iran’s recoverable natural gas reserves have risen by 283 billion cubic meters.
