Annual revenue of South Pars Gas Complex (SPGC) has reached $56 billion with production of 270 million cubic meters of gas, 400,000 barrels of gas condensate, 8,000 tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG), 5,200 tons of ethane and 1,000 tons of brimstone per day, managing director of the complex said, Shana news agency reported Friday.
"SPGC revenue is slated to reach $167 billion per year by March 2018 when the number of operational refineries increases from 5 to 14," Masoud Hassani said.
SPGC gas production capacity is to reach 430 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) by March 2015 and increase to 70 mcm/d by March 2018.
Output from the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf reached 50.7 billion cubic meters (bcm) in the first half of the Iranian year (March-September), up from 42.3 bcm in the same period last year. Gas production also reached 37.3 bcm in the March-September period compared to 31.5 bcm a year ago.
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, which measures 6,000 square kilometers. In the same period, more than 6 bcm of sour gas was pumped into the 5th national pipeline for injecting into the Aghajari oilfield in Khuzestan Province in order to increase extraction via a technique known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The field's total proven reserves are around 28 billion barrels, and production is 300,000 barrels per day.
SPGC propane production saw a 272 percent increase in the first half of the year, surpassing 461,000 tons. Butane production reached 191,000 tons in the March-September period following a 59 percent increase compared to the same period last year. LNG production also increased by 12 percent to more than 65,000 barrels.
Hassani said that by lowering the time of repairs in the SPGC by 40 percent, gas output reached 1.6 bcm and $2.6 billion was saved in costs in the past 8 months.
SPGC currently supplies 50 percent of domestic gas demand, and it is scheduled to reach 70 percent by March 2018, according to Hassani. He added that around 11,500 people are working at the SPGC, and more than 20,000 people will be employed at the complex by March 2018.
