South Pars Gas Output to Reach 540 mcm/d by March

Iran's natural gas production from the giant South Pars Gas Field will reach 515 million cubic meters per day by the end of this month as total production is planned to exceed 540 mcm/d by the end of the current fiscal year in March, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) said.

"Last month, South Pars gas output averaged 420-430 million cubic meters per day, but production has reached 460 mcm/d on the back of higher supplies from Phase 19," Muhammad Meshkinfam was quoted as saying by IRNA on Saturday.

Referring to phases 18 and 21which have been scheduled to go on stream by the end of December, Meshkinfam said the capacity to produce natural gas will increase as much as 515 mcm/d as soon as the phases become operational.

According to the official, POGC will be in charge of production operations of more than 40 oil and gas platforms over the next three years. 

He added that South Pars supplies 62% of total gas demand of households and power plants.

"Plans are in place to enhance operational capacity of 40 South Pars platforms," he said, saying that designing, constructing and installing platforms are complicated and time-consuming.

Attaching special importance to completing the construction and installation of platforms for phases 17-21 with the help of domestic experts, Meshkinfam noted, "such ventures can certainly help develop the oil industry and boost the economy."

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 trying 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 95b and 177 billion cubic meters of gas, respectively.

Tehran has commissioned several key phases of South Pars over the past three years in an effort to bridge the gap.