To maintain sustainable gas supply to northern regions, the state-owned East Oil and Gas Production Company, a subsidiary of Iranian Central Oil Fields Company, is producing close to 63 million cubic meters of natural gas and condensates on a daily basis, ICOFC’s managing director said.
"The gas is extracted from the Gonbadli Gas Field along Iran's border with Turkmenistan and stored in underground reservoirs to meet high demand in winter," Abolhassan Mohammadi was also quoted as saying by IRNA on Sunday.
ICOFC, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, has three affiliates, namely West Oil and Gas Production Company, East Oil and Gas Production Company and South Zagros Oil and Gas Production Company.
According to the official, the National Iranian Gas Company halted gas imports from Turkmenistan in 2017, but there has been no disruption in gas supply to consumers in northern regions.
NIGC used to sustain gas flow to northern provinces with the help of gas imported from Turkmenistan. Two years ago, NIGC ended the import after Ashgabat breached its gas contract with Iran.
Turkmenistan unilaterally stopped gas supplies to Iran in 2017, as the country was gripped by unseasonably cold temperatures that year.
“Maintaining the current production levels with the help of a wide range of measures has been prioritized by the company,” he said.
"In the past two years, 100% of the [Gonbadli gas] field's production capacity has been exploited for the first time in its history."
According to the official, two decades ago, Gonbadli, a joint hydrocarbon formation with Turkmenistan, was on the verge of stopping production because of its declining pressure, but with the implementation of technical plans and the assistance of Shahid Hasheminejad Gas Processing Company, located in the city of Sarakhs in Khorasan Razavi Province, the field was revived and has continued production.
Gas Collection Facility
East Oil and Gas Production Company has also completed the construction of a large natural gas collection facility in Khangiran Gas Field, northeast of Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi Province.
The facility, built at a cost $20 million, stores 10 million cubic meters of gas during the first eight months of the year—March 20 to Nov. 20—to meet the high fuel demand in winter in the northern and eastern provinces.
The natural gas collection system includes both flow line networks as well as process facilities. Together, they transport and control the flow of natural gas from its source at the well-site to a main storage facility and a processing plant.
Gas collection is a fundamental part of the midstream sector that involves transportation (by pipeline or truck) and storage of refined petroleum products.
The company produces more than 43 million cubic meters per day of gas, accounting for 6% of Iran's total natural gas output in a year. It is in charge of supplying gas to the entire Khorasan region (north, south and Razavi provinces), in addition to Semnan, Golestan and Mazandaran provinces.
