The government has increased rich gas production in South Pars Gas Field from 235.5 million cubic meters a day in 2013, the year President Hassan Rouhani took office, to 404.6 mcm/d by the end of the last Iranian year (March 19, 2016).
According to a report published by the Oil Ministry’s Department of Planning and Supervision on Hydrocarbon Reserves, South Pars’ rich gas output has witnessed a sharp rise of 169.1 mcm/d in the past three years, Shana reported.
Natural gas mixtures fall into two general categories: Wet or rich gas with higher concentrations of propane, butane and the intermediate-weight hydrocarbons like pentane through heptanes, and dry or lean gas, which has more methane and ethane (typically 95% or more).
Equivalent volume of rich gas provides more energy than lean gas does.
Iran boosted the production of rich gas in South Pars in Asalouyeh from 235.5 million cubic meters in 2013 to 360.3 million in 2015.
According to Ali Akbar Shabanpour, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, Iran pumped more than 95 billion cubic meters of natural gas from South Pars in the 10 months ending February.
He expected annual gas output from South Pars to reach 130 bcm by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2017).
Targeted development and completion of South Pars’ phases have been high on the Oil Ministry’s list of priorities, under which the joint field, has met an incremental growth in terms of production.
Future Plans
Production from phases 17-19 is expected to commence in the present Iranian year that ends on March 20, 2017, the ministry's report said. Furthermore, two production platforms, a gas transmission pipeline from offshore to onshore areas and several gas purification units are planned to go on stream within the period in the South Pars site, the report said without clarification.
During the past three years, Iran’s gas industry has launched Phase 12, South Pars' largest phase in terms of production and scope of operations, in addition to phases 15 and 16. Phases 17 and 18, with an output of 50 million cubic meters per day of gas, are to be officially inaugurated in the next few months.
South Pars is the world’s largest gas field shared with Qatar, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. It holds an estimated 40 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, or roughly 8% of the world’s reserves and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensates. It adjoins Qatar’s North Field that measures 6,000 square kilometers.
