The managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company predicted that the national gas output will increase by 120 million cubic meters per day by the end of this year (March 20, 2015) upon completion of all current projects.
The increase in the refining capacity by March will reach around 140 million cubic meters from three South Pars phases (12, 15, and 16), IRNA quoted Roknoddin Javadi as saying.
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.
Previously, officials had said that several projects were underway to increase daily gas output in the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf by 100 million cubic meters (mcm), of which 75 mcm has been fulfilled so far. Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has said that the 100-mcm target would be reached by March, 2015. More than 119 billion cubic meters of gas was pumped into the national gas pipeline in March-December period, nearly 13 percent more than the same period last year, deputy of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Abdol-Hossein Samari said in a recent report. Gas condensate production reached 19 million cubic meters (mcm) in the first nine months of the current Iranian year (March 21-December 21), one mcm more than the same period a year ago. Production of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) reached 1.4 million metric tons (mmt) in the March-December period, up from 630,000 metric tons last year. Methane production also reached 1.1 mmt, almost level with last year's output over the same period, Shana news agency reported Friday. Currently South Pars output, standing at 300 mcm/d, supplies 72 percent of the country's total gas consumption.
