The production capacity of South Pars fourth refinery will increase in the near future, the director of the refinery said.
Noting that the rise in output has been planned to prevent gas shortage in the country, especially in the cold seasons, Behzad Salari added that the fourth refinery is scheduled to receive gas from the Kish Gas Field, which will be developed in about a year, the Oil Ministry’s news service reported.
The fourth refinery of the South Pars Gas Complex is one of the 13 refineries, which processes about 85 million cubic meters of sour gas supplied by three platforms in phases 6, 7 and 8 of the giant South Pars Gas Field, shared by Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf, on a daily basis, he said, noting that the refinery’s products includes sweet gas, ethane, propane and butane.
“During the first nine months of the current Iranian year [March-September 2022], the refinery delivered about 22 billion cubic meters of gas to other refineries and the gas grid. During this period, we also produced 24 million barrels of gas condensate, 374,000 tons of propane, 236,000 tons of butane and 1.3 million tons of ethane,” he said.
Speaking about the indigenized equipment used in the refining complex, Salari said that refinery has manufactured modern equipment with the help of domestic producers.
“About 20 years ago when the refinery was launched, we imported equipment from foreign countries, but due to the cruel sanctions imposed on our country by the US, we could not continue to procure the needed parts,” he said.
“Capable knowledge-based companies have come forward to help in the past decade to produce these parts and as a result, the refinery has continued its operation without a problem.”
Environmental Measures
The director of the refinery said the complex has launched good measures for preserving the environment in the past years and has reduced its greenhouse emissions to a great extent, adding that plans are underway to further reduce emissions.
The flaring of associated petroleum gases at the refinery has been curtailed by 23%, or more than 14 million cubic meters annually.
Associated petroleum gas is natural gas found with deposits of petroleum. Flaring is the burning of natural gas that cannot be processed or sold. It is an important safety measure at many oil and gas production site, as it prevents industrial plant equipment from over-pressuring and exploding, yet burning high levels of APG is a major source of pollution.
According to Salari, measures have also been taken to reduce annual water consumption at the refinery, which is mainly used for cooling and cleaning the equipment, by 18,000 cubic meters a year.
South Pars, the world's largest proven offshore natural gas reservoir in the Persian Gulf, contains at least 12 trillion cubic meters of gas, of which 2 tcm have been extracted by Iran in the past 20 years.
The cumulative output of natural gas and its byproducts from the South Pars Gas Field has surpassed 2 trillion cubic meters since 2002.
Iran has generated more than $360 billion in revenues over the last 20 years by selling the gas field’s products, including gas condensates, natural gas and its derivatives.
