SZOGPC to Raise Gas Output by 6%

The South Zagros Oil and Gas Production Company is planning to produce a total of 66 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the fiscal 2017-18 that ends in March, almost 6% higher than last year's output.

"We produced over 62 billion cubic meters of gas in the previous fiscal, but output is forecast to exceed 66 billion cubic meters in the present year," Gholamhossein Montazeri, SZOGPC's managing director, was also quoted as saying by ILNA on Sunday.

The company also produced 20 million barrels of gas condensates and 2.1 million barrels of crude oil in the previous fiscal.

"Daily gas production is to reach 175 million cubic meters by March before rising to 200 mcm/d in winter," Montazeri added.

The company also pumps around 6,000 barrels per day of crude oil from a reservoir in Fars Province.

A subsidiary of the Iranian Central Oil Fields Company, SZOGPC operates nine natural gas fields and two oilfields in the central and southern provinces of Fars, Bushehr and Hormozgan.

The company also oversees 37 exploration projects and aims to expand operations across the Kohgilouyeh-Boyer Ahmad and Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari provinces.

Montazeri added that at an average oil price of $50 per barrel and a gas price of 13 cents per cubic meter, SZOGPC has earned an estimated $9.17 billion in annual revenues in the last fiscal year.

Tehran seeks to raise gas production capacity to 1 billion cubic meters per day by March 2018 on the back of bigger supplies from South Pars, the world's largest gas field shared with Qatar in the Persian Gulf.

In the fiscal 2016-17, gas production from South Pars increased to 520 mcm/d, up more than 150 mcm/d compared with the previous year. Iran's total gas output has reached 885 mcm/d, according to the latest government data.