The main refinery of South Pars Gas Field's Phase 1 has undergone an extensive overhaul, Mohammad Mehdi Hashemi, head of the refinery, said.
"The overhaul, which is expected to last a week, aims to improve energy management and health, safety and environment processes at the refinery," Hashemi was quoted as saying by IRNA on Sunday.
Studies on the overhaul of Phase 1 refinery, known as Refinery 1, lasted over a year, with the plan particularly designed to reduce fuel consumption to curtail the gas emissions.
South Pars has nine major operational refineries. Many refineries worldwide perform their maintenance and upgrade operations in summer.
The overhaul comes as the refining unit of Phase 4 is operating at full steam.
According to reports, Refinery 4, which processes natural gas output of phases 6-8, has produced more than 9.4 million barrels of gas condensates as well as 79,000 tons of propane and 44,000 tons of butane in March-May.
Iran is keen to upgrade its aging gas infrastructures to keep up competition with Qatar in gas production from the joint South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf. The field is estimated to contain 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensate.
It is currently producing around 450 million cubic meters of gas per day, but plans to ramp up output to 1.2 bcm/d in five years.
