More than 35 million cubic meters of gas is produced daily at the South Pars Phase 13 refinery and output is expected to rise to 50 mcm, the refinery manager said.
“In the blueprint 38 wells are considered for the phase that will deliver 56 mcm/d to the refinery. Now 39 mcm of gas is supplied to the refinery,” IRNA quoted Mohammad Saeidian as saying.
“Built by Iranian engineers, the refinery currently produces almost 40,000 barrels of gas condensate a day and will reach full capacity of 80,000 barrels soon,” he said.
Phase 13 is also to produce 400 tons of sulfur, 1.1 million tons of LPG and a million tons of ethane annually to provide feedstock to petrochemical plants.
Production of refined sweet gas at the giant South Pars Gas Complex increased 155% in 2019 compared to 2013 and output will increase by the end of the current Persian calendar year in March 2021.
According to the Oil Ministry and the National Iranian Gas Company, South Pars daily gas production capacity was 280 mcm seven years ago. It is to reach 750 mcm by the end of the year.
The development of South Pars Gas Field has helped expand gas supply to rural areas. In 2013, an estimated 14,000 villages were connected to the national gas grid but now over 30,000 villages have access to piped gas. In about six months, 2,000 villages will be added to the network.
Moreover, the rise in gas output has helped the environment as more power plants now use natural gas instead of eco-unfriendly liquid fuels such as diesel and mazut.
According to Oil Ministry data, power stations consumed 27 billion liters of liquid fuel in 2013. However, consumption dropped to nine billion liters and is decreasing to help protect the environment and curb CO2 emissions.
Furthermore, gas exports have increased almost 90% compared to 2013. Iran currently exports an average of 80 mcm of gas per day to Turkey, Iraq, Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic
Iran (34 trillion cubic meters) and Russia (32.6 tcm) hold the largest proven gas reserves in the world.
Surveys on hydrocarbon fields show that the country's recoverable natural gas reserves have risen by 283 billion cubic meters. South Pars, the world's largest gas field shared between Iran and Qatar was developed in 24 phases.
