Iran produced about 43 billion cubic meters of natural gas during the first three months of the current fiscal year (started March 21), Abdolhossein Samari, deputy director of the National Iranian Gas Company, announced.
The gas refining record broke in March with the production of 538 million cubic meters per day of gas, Natural Gas Europe quoted the official as saying.
Iran plans to increase refined gas production to about 330 billion cubic meters per annum by 2018. Samari said to achieve this aim, gas refineries should increase from 13 to 19, gas compressor stations should increase from 71 to 91 and the gas network should increase from 35,000 km to 40,000 km.
Iran currently produces above 660 mcm/d of raw gas and plans to increase this volume to 1,200 mcm/d by 2018. Iran produced about 168 bcm of refined gas during the last fiscal year.
Huge Jump in Gas Delivery to Power Plants
The Iranian Energy Ministry’s latest weekly report indicates a huge increase in gas deliveries to power plants during the week ending July 7.
From July 1 to 7, Iran delivered 1.541 billion cubic meters or more than 220 million cubic meters per day to power plants.
During 110 days of Iran’s fiscal year (March 21 to July 7), Iran delivered 18.61 bcm of natural gas to power plants, which indicates an 18.7% increase year-on-year.
During this period, about 553 million liters of diesel (-69.2% Y/Y), as well as 1,276 ml of fuel oil (-45.7% Y/Y) were consumed in Iran’s power plants.
In total, 82,913 million kWh of electricity were produced during 110 days in Iran, of which 2,649 million kWh were exported (-22%), while 1,329 million kWh of electricity was imported (+17%).
Iran’s power generation capacity is more than 73 GW, while the actual production capacity stands at less than 58 GW.
$1.4b to Develop Kish Gas Field
Iran allocated $1.4 billion to the development of Kish gas field, Iran’s First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri announced on June 10.
The field is projected to produce 9 bcm of gas as well as 4 million barrels of gas condensates per year.
The Kish gas field is Iran’s largest non-shared natural gas field, located in the Persian Gulf.
The field’s reserves are estimated at 1.8 trillion cubic meters of in-situ gas and 514 million barrels of condensates. Iran discovered this field in 2006 and started to develop the project in 2007.
The National Iranian Drilling Company has drilled 13 new wells in Kish gas field, IRNA reported last October.
Iran is projected to start early gas production from Kish field in November with 1 bcm per annum, then to raise this volume to 9 bmc gradually.
Piping in Offshore SP Phases 20, 21
Iran started piping in offshore phases 20 and 21 of giant South Pars gas field, according to a report released by Pars Oil and Gas Company on July 12.
The report says two separate pipelines, each one with 105 km length would transit 50 mcm/d of these phases’ gas to the refineries in Asaluyeh city, Bushehr Province.
These phases are also aimed at producing one million tons of ethane per year as well as 75,000 barrels of gas condensates by the end of 2016.
