The first phase of an operation to lay a new offshore pipeline to link the first deck of Phase 16 (SPD 16A) of South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf to onshore gas refining facilities has been completed by domestic experts, the project manager said.
According to the Oil Ministry and the National Iranian Oil Company, shore pulling operations to transfer pipelines to SPD 16A site were carried out last week and they will be laid at the bottom of the sea soon, the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana reported.
An undertaking of Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company, the new 32-inch pipeline that will extend over 110 kilometers is expected to help transfer 28 million cubic meters of gas from the platform to the onshore processing facility.
According to Ali Akbar Majed, the head of Oil and Gas Engineering Department at the Pars Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of NIOC, operations to drill new wells in the gas field are also underway.
New wells are expected to make up for pressure reduction in the gas field that will start from 2025 and reduce gas production to as low as 400 million cubic meters in 2032, down 100% compared to the present levels, he added.
The POGC official said close to 350 wells in SP are acidized and perforated regularly to keep production as high as possible, but this cannot continue for long and the drilling of new wells is inevitable.
Output from the giant field is now 700 million cubic meters per day and will reach 1.2 billion cubic meters per day by 2024 and then a downtrend would begin.
According to Majed, production is expected to fall by 28 mcm/d, which amount to 10 bcm per year, as of 2025.
Estimates suggest output will be around 400 mcm/d in 2032, as consumption exceeds 1.5 bcm/d.
Pressure Reduction
The installation of offshore compressor stations in the field is the only long-term viable option to control pressure reduction, he added.
The field will not be able to produce 700 mcm of gas per day (the current output) forever and the eco-friendly resource should be used as wisely as possible.
Recent reports said household gas consumption has reached 700 mcm/d.
Referring to short-term strategies to postpone pressure reduction, Majed said the company has started to acidize offshore wells and this would delay the process by three years.
"By 2025, the pressure is expected to decline by 28 mcm per year unless special platforms and compressors are installed,” he added.
South Pars accounts for 80% of Iran’s gas need and the decline in output will create insurmountable problems for households, industries and thermal power stations.
South Pars has 24 phases, all of which, except Phase 11, are operational. The mega project includes 39 offshore platforms.
The huge gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar, covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which (South Pars) are in Iran’s territorial waters and the rest (North Dome) is in Qatari waters. It is estimated to contain large deposits of natural gas, accounting for 8% of the world’s known reserves and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensates.
