South Pars Phase 13 Completion in 2018

Phase 13 of the South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf is scheduled for launch next year, an important piece of Iran's production plan from the world's largest gas field that is shared with Qatar.

According to a report by ISNA on Wednesday, Phase 13 development project–aimed at producing 56 million cubic meters of natural gas per day–will be completed in the next fiscal year that starts on March 21, 2018. Once in full swing, the offshore project will also produce 2,900 tons of liquefied petroleum gas, 2,750 tons of ethane, 75,000 barrels of ultra light crude, also known as condensate, and 400 tons of sulfur per day.

South Pars, which is known as the North Dome in the Qatari territory, is being developed in 24 phases.

The Phase 13 project will consist of offshore infrastructure, including 38 wells, four platforms and four pipelines stretching about 90 kilometers off the Persian Gulf coast, as well as onshore facilities, including four gas refining units each with a daily processing capacity of 14 million cubic meters.

A consortium of local firms, namely Iran Marine Industrial Company or SADRA, energy conglomerate MAPNA and Petro Paydar Iranian Company, is developing Phase 13.

Work on transporting and installing the offshore structures of Phase 13 is underway. Earlier this month, Iran's Offshore Engineering and Construction Company loaded the flare stack 'C' to be transferred and installed in the Persian Gulf.

The tripod, weighing 446 tons and standing 69 meters tall, was lifted with the help of domestic floating crane HL-5000 and is planned to be carried to its location later this month.

SP Phase 13 development was set back two years ago after a Singapore-flagged oil tanker, named Alpine Eternity, crashed and significantly damaged the project's 13A platform jacket. The old jacket was reportedly replaced in September.

Phase 13 is in line with Iran's plans to raise natural gas output to 1.1 billion cubic meters per day by 2021.

The country's gas production capacity stands over 800 million cubic meters a day, but output has been dented in recent months because of the shutdown of several South Pars production and refining facilities.

Iran hopes to complete all South Pars phases by March 2019, a target that officials say requires between $20-30 billion in investment. Supplies from South Pars make up nearly two-thirds of Iran's total gas supply.

Being under development for over a decade, the mammoth South Pars gas project is Iran's effort to match and exceed Qatar's rate of gas extraction from South Pars.

Iran also began drawing crude oil from South Pars, as plans call for raising crude production from the South Pars oil layer to as much as 150,000 barrels per day from around 20,000 bpd now. Qatar started crude oil production from the joint field over two decades ago.