Long-delayed offshore drilling operations in the South Pars Gas Field Phase 11 off the Persian Gulf started Tuesday by Mapna Drilling Company, the National Iranian Oil Company’s deputy managing director said.
“Drilling rig MD-1 is at SP 11 location near the Iran-Qatar sea border,” Reza Dehqan was quoted as saying by ISNA.
An estimated 14 million cubic meters of natural gas per day is expected to be drawn from the phase by the end of 2021, he noted.
Regarding funds, he said $15 million has been invested so far and $70 million more is needed to complete the first phase of the scheme by next March. “Part of the funds will come from issuing participatory bonds.”
Drilling will be carried out in two phases, he said, and added that the first phase entails digging four horizontal and one vertical well, all of which will be connected to the first wellhead jacket installed recently.
Seven more wells will be dug in the second phase of drilling operation.
“Installation of the first wellhead jacket of SP 11 is over and 12 wells will be drilled in two phases.”
The jacket of Platform B hauled from Qeshm Island reached its destination 135 km off Asalouyeh coast in August, and the installation process was completed in two months.
This was the first of two jackets of Phase 11, which allows drilling 12 wells near the Iran-Qatar sea border. “Phase 11 is the only one among the total 24 SP phases whose development was delayed,” he noted.
NIOC signed a contract for developing Phase 11 with an international consortium of France’s Total, China’s CNPCI and Iran’s Petropars in July 2017. However, the foreign companies pulled out soon after the confrontational US president, Donald Trump, imposed a new economic siege in 2018 and the project was taken up by Petropars alone.
When fully operational, the phase will produce 56.6 million cubic meters of gas per day plus 75,000 barrels of gas condensate. Gas will be transferred to onshore refineries in Asalouyeh and Kangan in Bushehr Province.
The giant gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar, spreads over 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters and the rest in Qatari waters.
Huge Reserve
“South Pars is estimated to hold 14 trillion cubic meters of recoverable gas reserves,” he said, adding that huge reserves do not mean that consumers can use as much as they want.
Pleading for judicious consumption, he said taking out gas from the button of the see and delivering to households is a monumental task and such a valuable resource must not be wasted.
According to Mohammadreza Joulaee, head of the National Iranian Gas Company Dispatching Department, natural gas supply surpassed 780 million cubic meters last Saturday as cold weather pushed into the northern and western regions, said.
“Households used 590 million cubic meters of gas on December 12 up 20% compared to the same period in 2019.”
The mercury in Tehran and other cities with relatively moderate climate (compared to the southern regions) has bordered near minus 2 to 7 degrees Celsius in the past few days.
Gas delivery to thermal power plants, as usual, has halved due to high demand from households. Almost 40% of gas in the Middle East is consumed in Iran, an unreasonably high level. The residential sector is the largest consumer followed by power plants and petrochemical companies.
"National Iranian Gas Company has cut gas delivery to gas-powered power plants from 145 million cubic meters per day to 70 mcm/d," the NIGC official said. Gas exports to Iraq and Turkey is around 40 mcm/d.
