The first production unit of South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf has come on stream with a capacity to produce 50 million cubic meters of gas per day, project manager of Petropars oil and gas company said.
Fully launching Phase 19 is now a priority after the official inauguration of Phase 12 in March, Seyyed Hadi Mirbagheri was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency on Saturday.
He said the development of Phase 12 onshore refineries has made 85 percent progress, and drilling operations of offshore wells are close to completion. In addition, the phase's offshore platforms are also 70 percent complete.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. It adjoins Qatar’s North Field, which measures 6,000 square kilometers.
Last month, President Hassan Rouhani officially launched Phase 12, SP's biggest phase in terms of volume of work as well as investment and production level.
Once fully operational, Phase 19 is estimated to produce 50 mcm/d of gas as well as 75,000 barrels of gas condensate, one million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and one million tons of ethane per year.
Drilling Operations
Along with the inauguration of Phase 12 which is touted as the biggest Iranian gas project in history, the National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) said it drilled close to 382,700 meters of offshore and onshore oil and gas wells in the last Iranian calendar year (ended March 20).
Last year's drilling operations showed a 43,000 meter year-on-year increase, or approximately 9 percent, IRIB quoted Heydar Bahmani, NIDC managing director, as saying on Saturday.
The drilling of 161 wells was completed last year, including 86 development-delineation wells and one exploratory well, and 74 well workovers. In addition, 109 wells were within the operational territory of the National Iranian South Oilfields Company (NISOC), 15 under the supervision of the Iranian Central Oilfields Company (ICOFC), and 10 were developed and completed by the Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC).
Drilling at 17 wells were completed nearly one year ahead of schedule. Bahmani said drilling operations are underway in 10 provinces and stretch from Sarakhs in Khorasan Razavi Province in northeast to central and southern regions including the South Pars gas field. NIDC was established in 1980 and so far has drilled a total of 3,848 oil and gas wells in an estimated area of 8.2 million meters.
