Iran's gas condensates export from South Pars Gas Field in October experienced an 80% increase compared with the corresponding period of last year, managing director of Iran Oil Terminals Company said on Sunday.
"IOTC loaded more than 14.7 million barrels of gas condensates via three single point mooring in October," Seyyed Pirouz Mousavi was quoted as saying by Shana.
"About 8 million barrels were loaded and exported during the same period of last year."
Pointing to last year's inauguration of Phase 12 in January, Mousavi said this phase's whopping output exceeds three standard gas phases, which explains why the production of condensate witnessed such a big rise.
Moreover, as soon as phases 18 and 19 go on stream, the strategic product's production will see another dramatic jump.
The official noted that IOTC is ready to handle the increase in gas condensate export, as more phases become operational.
According to Mousavi, two ships can berth simultaneously in Assaluyeh Export Terminal. Furthermore, gas condensate from Phase 12 is loaded and exported via SMPs located in Pars 2 region (aka Kangan).
"Iran exported more than 12 million tons of oil and non-oil goods worth $6.5 billion from South Pars, its biggest gas field in the Persian Gulf during the first half of the current Iranian year (started March 21)," said Mehdi Yousefi, managing director of Special Pars Economic Energy Zone.
"Over $2.5 billion were earned from the export of 74 million barrels of gas condensate," he added.
Mousavi said plans have been made to convert raw materials to high value-added products for use in domestic refineries, especially in the Persian Gulf Refinery.
Iran's major condensate buyers include China, Japan, South Korea, the UAE and Poland.
Iran has the capacity to export about 500,000 bpd of condensate, but buyers took about 180,000 bpd on average in the first nine months of this year.
Referring to the harsh weather conditions that make berthing difficult for large crude carriers, Mousavi said, "Since the beginning of the year, more than 1,807 oil tankers have been loaded in Assaluyeh Export Terminal."
South Pars phases 20 and 21 will become operational by the end of November and their gas will be injected into Iran's Gas Trunkline—aka IGAT—in winter, Alireza Ebadi, director of phases 20 and 21 at Pars Oil and Gas Company said.
"The offshore sector has made 81% progress and Phase 21 platform, where sour gas will be converted to sweet gas prior to its delivery to IGAT, will be installed by the end of October."
Ebadi said the establishment of the 6-km pipeline from the sea to the refinery is underway, adding that if processing platforms are not ready by the end of October, the gas will be sent to IGAT before being processed at the platform.
Phases 20 and 21 of South Pars Gas Field are being developed for the production of 50 million cubic meters per day of processed natural gas for domestic consumption, a million tons a year of ethane for use by petrochemical plants, 1.05 million tons a year of high-quality liquefied gas for exports and 75,000 barrels a day of condensates.
According to the Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company, gas production from the offshore sector of phases 20-21 will rise by more than 14 mcm/d in four months to meet the country's natural gas demand during the cold season.
Condensate is a byproduct of natural gas production. South Pars is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, and covers 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.
The field holds an estimated 40 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, or equal to roughly 8% of the world’s reserves and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.
SP output accounts for more than 50% of Iran's total gas production capacity, which is expected to rise to 75% next year once the seven high-priority phases of the field are complete.
