POGC to Offset South Pars Gas Production Decline

Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) is coming up with a scheme to raise gas extraction from the giant South Pars field in the Persian Gulf, the company's chief executive officer said.

"Production decline is a natural phenomenon in oil and gas fields. We are closely collaborating with a French company to offset the decline and raise production from South Pars," Mohammad Meshkinfam was quoted as saying by ISNA on Friday.

He said the details of the scheme will be finalized in two weeks but did not name the French company.

"The plan will give us a clear picture of the field's condition as well as necessary equipment and investment requirements to raise output," he noted. Oil and gas fields have a life cycle of 10-50 years, depending on their size and geological formations. Production hits a plateau for two to three years before the extraction rate drops by 1-10% every year.

Meshkinfam stressed that the French company is different from Total S.A. which has signed an agreement to develop Phase 11 of South Pars in a $4.8 billion deal in collaboration with China National Petroleum Corporation and Iran's Petropars company.

POGC is a subsidiary of the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company. It has been the contractor of several phases of South Pars as well as the North Pars, Golshan and Ferdowsi gas fields in the Persian Gulf.

In fiscal 2016-17, gas production from South Pars increased to 520 million cubic meters per day, up more than 150 mcm/d compared with the previous year.

South Pars, which is shared between Iran and Qatar, provides nearly two-thirds of the country's demand for natural gas. It adjoins the North Dome field in Qatar's territorial waters.

Iran has been second-best to Qatar in gas production from South Pars since it began production in early 2000, approximately one decade after its Persian Gulf rival commenced production at the joint field.