Several unfinished petroleum projects worth $8 billion are scheduled to be completed by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2023), the 0il minister said.
“The projects are aimed at addressing issues such as enhancing oil and gas production, boosting gas refining capacity, developing petrochemical complexes and collecting associated petroleum gases,” Javad Owji was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news service.
Among the projects, he pointed to the final stages of development of South Pars Gas Field and said, “Phase 11 of the massive field will finally become operational before the year is out. The project will add 14 million cubic meters of gas to the country’s daily natural gas production capacity.”
The drilling of the last four wells in the phase is in their final stages and after the project’s subsea pipe-laying operations are completed, gas extraction will begin.
Phase 11 is the only one among the 24 phases of the joint field in the Persian Gulf, which has not been developed yet. Iran shares the field with Qatar.
The Phase 11 development project included the construction and installation of the jackets and topsides of the phase, drilling of 12 wells and establishment of 115-km-long 32-inch pipelines to transfer mono-ethylene glycol and liquefied natural gas to onshore plants for processing.
About 12,000 meters of drilling operations to dig four production wells have been carried out and it is estimated to reach 15,000 meters upon completion.
When it becomes fully operational, the phase will produce 56.6 million cubic meters of gas per day, plus 75,000 barrels of gas condensate, which will be transferred to refineries in Asalouyeh and Kangan in Bushehr Province.
SP Phase 14 Refinery
Owji also talked about the completion of South Pars Phase 14 Refinery and said the fourth sweetening train of the refinery will become fully operational by March 20.
With the completion of the refinery, the development of the onshore sector of the world's largest gas field in Iran, which holds 8% of the global natural gas reserves and about 18 billion barrels of gas condensate, will be concluded after more than two decades.
The South Pars field in the Persian Gulf has 24 phases. Since no more refineries will be built for this section, Phase 14 refinery is the last onshore processing facility in the huge field.
The offshore section of the phase is complete and all the platforms are functioning. It has four platforms, each with a production capacity of 14 million cubic meters of gas per day.
Phase 14 produces 56.6 million cubic meters of natural gas, 75,000 barrels of gas condensate and 400 tons of sulfur.
South Pars, the world's largest proven offshore natural gas reservoir, contains at least 12 trillion cubic meters of gas, of which close to 9 tcm are extractable and Iran has extracted about 2 tcm of gas from the field in the past two decades.
About $80 billion have been invested in the field over the past 20 years. Around 70% of the country's gas are supplied from South Pars. Iran is producing more than 1 billion cubic meters of gas per day, almost 700 mcm of which are supplied by SP.
APG Collection
Referring to projects for collecting associated petroleum gases, the minister recently expressed hope that in less than four years, all the flare gas in east and west Karoun regions that include several large oilfields straddling the Iran-Iraq border would be collected.
APG, or flare gas, is gas dissolved in oil. It is a mixture of hydrocarbons obtained from oil extraction and separation processes. The gas can be utilized in a number of ways after processing: as feedstock for the petrochemical industry and for gas distribution networks.
APG collection is an important safety measure at many oil and gas production sites, as it prevents industrial plant equipment from over-pressuring and exploding.
Iran has made progress in using flare gas either for power generation or as feed for refineries. Since 2008, Iran has prevented the flaring of over 12 billion cubic meters of APG, a source of global warming and waste of valuable fuel.
Despite the measures, Iran has the highest rate of energy waste in the form of APG in the Middle East and ranks third in the world in terms of gas flaring after Russia and Iraq.
According to official reports, approximately 17 bcm of gas are still flared and wasted annually in Iran.
