Iran’s natural gas exports witnessed an 11% growth in the fiscal year 2022 compared to the corresponding period of 2021.
According to the statistical review of world energy report issued by the Energy Institute, the National Iranian Gas Company transferred close to 19 billion cubic meters of gas to international markets via pipeline in 2022, IRNA reported.
NIGC’s exports in 2021 amounted to 17 bcm, the report added.
Iran accounted for 2.5% of the total global gas trade in the period that amounted to 718 bcm, up 2% compared to 2021 when the figure stood at 704 bcm.
Drawing a parallel between global gas trade growth (2%) and that of Iran (11%) in 2022, the report added that Iran’s gas export growth was five times bigger than the global average.
Not surprisingly, Russia was the largest trader of natural gas via pipeline last year and sold about 125 bcm to customers worldwide.
Of NIGC’s total exports in 2022, 9.5 bcm, 9.1 bcm and 0.4 bcm were sent to Iraq, Turkey and Azerbaijan respectively.
According to the report, Iran’s gas consumption in 2022 reached 229 bcm, down 3% compared to 2021.
Close to 4 trillion cubic meters of gas were consumed in the world in 2022, which was 3% less than that of 2021.
According to Hossein-Ali Mohammad Hosseini, NIGC's director for integrated planning, the state-run firm needs investment worth $20 billion to finish extending pipelines to all rural districts in the country over the next two years.
According to the official, the expansion plan will not have a negative impact on gas consumption, as most rural areas are not populated and their consumption cannot be compared with industries and power plants.
Ethane Output
The official noted that NIGC’s annual ethane output will soon reach 5 million tons.
The current production volume is close to 4.2 million tons, all of which is delivered to petrochemical plants as feedstock to be converted to value-added commodities, but as more petrochemical plants will become operational in the near future (Kian, Hormoz and Sepehr in Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province), increasing ethane output is on NIGC’s agenda.
South Pars Gas Complex in Bushehr Province supplies 10,000 tons of ethane on a daily basis to petrochemical plants located in the region, the managing director of the complex, Ahmed Bahoush, said.
Calling it the largest supplier of feedstock for downstream industries in the country, he said, “The ethane produced by SPGC is sent to Jam, Arya Sasol, Morvarid, Kavian and PetroIran petrochemical plants, which is set to increase with the completion of the ongoing development plans.”
Referring to ethane production at the complex in the fiscal 2022-23, he said, “Last year, by carrying out precise and regular overhauls and using high-quality locally-made parts and equipment, close to 2.2 million tons of ethane were produced in the refineries of the complex.”
Bahoush noted that last year, about 3.3 million tons of propane and 3.3 million tons of butane were produced in South Pars refineries.
LPG Mixture
Butane is primarily used as a fuel gas within the LPG mixture. Like ethane and propane, the main use of butane is as feedstock in steam cracking units for olefin production.
The primary use of propane in the petrochemical industry is as feedstock, along with ethane and naphtha, in petrochemical crackers to produce ethylene, propylene and other olefins. Propane can also be used as a dedicated feedstock in the petrochemical industry for propylene production.
Normal butane can also be used as feedstock in the petrochemical industry. When normal butane is used in petrochemical cracking, the process yields (among other chemicals) butadiene, which is a precursor to synthetic rubber.
South Pars Gas Complex comprises 14 gas refineries in southern Iran, which are currently processing the gas extracted from the country’s giant South Pars Gas Field that Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf.
SPGC accounts for 73% and 92% of total natural gas and gas condensate output respectively. It also accounts for 96% of liquefied petroleum gas, 100% of ethane and 55% of sulfur produced in the country.
The share of fossil fuel in Iran's energy basket is 74%, of which 50% are produced by SPGC.
Data pertaining to 2022 show a rise in output of a variety of byproducts at SPGC, namely ethane (20%), LPG (25%) and sulfur (12%), compared to the year before.
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.
More than 2,300 billion cubic meters of natural gas have been processed in the refineries of the South Pars Gas Field since it became operational in 1998.
