Natural Gas Supply From SP Assured for Heating Homes

As the first wave of cold weather sweeps through large parts of Iran, energy officials say they are taking measures to meet rising demand for gas to heat homes as snowfall envelopes the country and the weatherman reports freezing temperatures.

"We are now drawing 460 million cubic meters of natural gas daily from South Pars Gas Field" to meet the surge in domestic demand, Mohammad Meshkinfam, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company was quoted as saying on Tuesday, Shana reported.

"In the previous month, South Pars gas output averaged 420-430 million cubic meters per day, but production reached 460 mcm/d on the back of higher supplies from Phase 19," the official said.

Phase 19 is equal to two average South Pars phases which is planned to produce more than 55 million cubic meters of gas per day when completed.

According to Iran Meteorological Organization, most of the northern regions as well as some central and western areas in Iran are affected by the cold wave.

The temperature in Tehran, which has seen rounds of rain and snow in the past several days, is expected to fall to sub-zero levels.

Iran holds some of the world's largest natural gas reserves in the world. The lion's share of gas from South Pars, the world's largest gas field shared between Iran and Qatar, is used by households and power plants.

Meshkinfam asserted that Iran's gas production from the giant field will reach 500 mcm/d by the end of December as total production is expected to exceed 530 million cubic meters a day by next March, the end of the current Iranian fiscal year.

South Pars is the world’s largest gas field, covering 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 roughly 8% of the world’s reserves and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.

Iran has been pushing ahead with plans to outperform Qatar in production from South Pars which is known as the North Dome in Qatar's maritime boundary. The tiny Arab sheikdom  is reportedly producing 700 mcm/d from the giant gas field.

According to Natural Gas World, in 2014, Iran and Qatar extracted 95 billion cubic meters and 177 billion cubic meters of gas, respectively.

But Iran has commissioned several key phases of South Pars over the past three years in an effort to close the gap.

South Pars Phase 12, cast as the largest Iranian gas project in recent times, was officially launched in March last year, and phases 15 and 16 started operations 11 months ago. Phase 17 and 18 are also scheduled to go on stream in 2016.

Lack of modern technology and funding due to the international sanctions hampered the development of joint hydrocarbon fields, allowing neighbors to draw the lion's share of  underground reserves.