Pars Oil and Gas Company has signed a contract with an unnamed French enterprise for implementing a research initiative to devise effective strategies to prevent natural gas pressure reduction in the South Pars Gas field, construction and engineering manager in POGC said on Saturday.
“Plans have been made to gradually put out to tender new ventures in the joint gas field with the aim of maximizing gas pressure,” Mohammad Meshkinfam was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
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 that measures 6,000 square kilometers.
Elaborating on new plans to fight against gas pressure reduction in South Pars, Meshkinfam added that installation of compressor stations is the most significant approach to address gas pressure reduction.
Underscoring the fact that plans to increase gas pressure will be implemented as soon as new South Pars phases are completed, the official said the new projects are much more complicated and larger than the phases under construction.
According to the official, gas platforms being installed in the region weigh between 1,500 and 2,500 tons for producing 30 million cubic meters of gas per day.
Nonetheless, the new gas compressor utilities, which will be installed in South Pars, weigh 20,000 tons. In other words, the new installations are 10 times heavier than the installed platforms and the deal with the French company is aimed at conducting preliminary studies on how to build and install the mega structures.
Second Deal
Stressing that plans call for signing a second research contract with an international consultancy firm in the near future, the official noted that each research initiative will take six months.
Asked about implementing the rest of the mega gas project, Meshkinfam said as soon as the studies, which will last one year at most, end, the best scenario to build and install the new gas compressor utilities will be selected.
"In the next two years, new gas tenders will be held to install the mega gas compressor installations," he said, noting that the phases with lower pressure will be given higher priority.
POGC, a subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Company, oversees the development of the field in its entirety.
According to official reports, Iran produced 130 billion cubic meters of gas last year, or roughly 356 mcm/d of annual output, are planned to reach 236 billion cubic meters, or almost 650 million cubic meters a day by March 2018.
Iran has close to 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, which is about 18% of the total global natural gas reserves. This means Iran has the potential to become a major player in the natural gas market when all sanctions are lifted by the yearend.
Iran's strategic location can help meet the growing gas demand of Asian countries like India, China and Pakistan. It is, therefore, planning a number of gas pipelines to boost exports.
The country is planning to boost gas production capacity from around 430 million cubic meters per day at present to 1 billion cubic meters a day in 2017 and 1.2 bcm/d by 2020.
