Natural gas refining complexes produced over 237 million barrels of gas condensates in 2017, a deputy at the National Iranian Gas Company said on Saturday.
"The output level witnessed 13% growth in 2017 compared to the corresponding period in 2016 when production stood at 210 million barrels," Mehdi Jamshidi-Dana was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
According to the official, condensate output is slated to reach 1 million barrels a day upon the launch of all phases of South Pars—the giant gas field shared by Iran and Qatar. But Tehran has said it wants to reduce outbound shipments of condensates and instead use fossil fuel for manufacturing goods with higher value added.
"Natural gas refining complexes also produced over 247 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2017, showing an 8% hike compared to 2016 when the output stood at 230 bcm," he added, noting that close to 172.9 bcm of gas were refined in South Pars gas plants in 2017, accounting for 69% of the country's total gas production. According to the official, gas output from South Pars gas refineries comprised 62% of Iran's total output.
"Liquefied petroleum gas production amounted to 2,700 tons in 2016, which increased to 2,876 tons in 2017," Jamshidi-Dana said. He added that sulphur and ethane output reached 1,376 tons and 2,831 tons in 2017 respectively, indicating an 18% and 22% rise compared to 2015.
The official noted that the lion's share of sulphur and ethane is exported to foreign markets.
"A total of 67.7 bcm of gas were delivered to domestic power plants in the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2018)," he said, adding that the figure stood at 61 bcm in 2016.
"State-owned NIGC is pursuing the policy of increasing gas delivery to power plants with the goal of curbing pollutants and preserving the environment."
Jamshidi-Dana noted that the country sold 9.1 bcm of natural gas to the neighboring states in 2016, which soared to as much as 13.2 bcm in 2017.
NIGC exported an average of 36 million cubic meters of gas in the last fiscal.
