The Iranian Central Oil Fields Company has spent $600 million to build pressure boosting stations in gas fields to help provide sustainable supplies to gas refineries, director of the company’s investment and development said.
"Research has been conducted for construction of the stations. It will be ready in 36 months," the National Iranian Oil Company news portal quoted Mohammad Bahmaei as saying.
“Work on booster stations for Homa and Varavi gas fields and Tabnak separation center started after agreements with contractors and construction companies,” he said.
Booster stations, which include pumps or compressors, are located at gaps along a liquid-product or gas pipeline to boost pressure of the fluid to keep it flowing unhindered toward its destination.
Varavi Gas Field in Lamerd County, Fars Province, has a daily production capacity of 5.8 million cubic meters, which is transferred to Parsian Gas Refinery via a 16-kilometer pipeline.
Homa Gas Field, in the south of Fars Province, is one of several suppliers of gas to Parsian Refinery that has a daily gas processing capacity of 80 million cubic meters used by the national grid.
Bahmaei said work is in progress to build a booster station at the Kangan Gas Field in southern Bushehr Province. It produces 52 million cubic meters of gas a day.
Referring to development programs for the booster station at Nar Gas Field, the official said: “Permits are being taken and work will start soon after.”
Nar Field is a few kilometers from Kangan Field. Gas produced from Nar and Kangan is delivered to Fajr Jam Gas Refinery in Bushehr.
Nar and Kangan are the major onshore natural gas providers for domestic consumption. The two fields together produce 120 million cubic meter of gas per day.
According to Bahmaei, negotiations are underway to build a similar station at Tang Bijar Gas Field in western Ilam Province. The field can produce 7 million cubic meters of gas a day and is output is sold to Ilam Gas Refinery.
Established in 1999, the Iranian Central Oil Fields Company is one of the five major NIOC subsidiaries.
The ICOFC is in charge of 12 gas and 13 oil fields that produced 41 million barrels of oil and 70 billion cubic meters of gas last year (ended in March).
Iran’s daily gas refining capacity has reached over one billion cubic meters. Natural gas exports have also increased by 3.6 billion cubic meters, or 26%, between March 2019-March 2020, compared to the previous year.
The country’s proven reserves of natural gas are 32 trillion cubic meters, according to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy for 2020. The South Pars field, shared between Iran and Qatar, is the world's largest gas field, covering 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.
