Annual natural gas extraction from the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf has rocketed by a massive 2,000% over the last 18 years, the managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, said.
“In 2002, roughly 12 billion cubic meters of gas were extracted from the field. Nonetheless, the figure experienced an upward trend and stood at 255 bcm in 2020,” Mohammad Meshkinfam was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
NIOC has generated almost $355 billion in revenues over the period by selling the gas field’s products, including gas condensates, natural gas and its derivatives, he added.
Meshkinfam said the company has extracted around 2 trillion cubic meters of gas from the field since 2002.
Iran’s daily withdrawal from SP was 282 million cubic meters per day in 2013, but it has now reached 700 mcm/d.
“The giant hydrocarbon field accounted for 10% of Iran’s gas production in 2002. Nevertheless, the share has now risen to 70%,” he said.
POGC’s CEO said an estimated $50 billion are needed to develop and maintain gas fields across Iran over the next 20 years.
“Of the total investment, about $30 billion would be for projects in the giant South Pars gas field,” he added.
South Pars, the world's largest proven offshore natural gas reservoir in the Persian Gulf, contains at least 12 trillion cubic meters of gas, of which 2 tcm have been extracted by Iran in the past 18 years.
Meshkinfam said that of the total reserves, close to 9 tcm are extractable.
“So far, $78 billion have been invested to develop SP since 2002 when the field’s daily output was 32 million cubic meters. The field then accounted for less than 10% of Iran’s gas requirements,” he added.
Giving a breakdown, the POGC managing director noted that around $9 billion were spent on the field between 2002 and 2006 to boost production by 113 mcm/d after four years and output reached 145 mcm/d in 2006.
“Between 2006 and 2013, NIOC invested $45 billion in the gas field and daily output approached 287 mcm,” he said.
Close to $24 billion have been spent to develop the field since 2013 and production is currently around 680 mcm/d, accounting for 70% of the domestic need for the eco-friendly fuel.
“To reach 1.5 bcm/d, NIOC needs at least $30 billion over the next two decades,” he said.
Meshkinfam announced that 10 new gas fields have been discovered, mostly in the Persian Gulf.
The huge gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar, covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which (South Pars) are in Iran’s territorial waters and the rest (North Dome) is in Qatari waters. It is estimated to contain large deposits of natural gas, accounting for 8% of the world’s known reserves and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensates.
South Pars has 24 phases, all of which, except Phase 11, are operational. The mega project includes 39 offshore platforms.
Condensate Production
In related news, IRNA quoted Hossein Shamshiri, deputy managing director of South Pars Gas Complex, as saying that the complex produces 650,000 barrels of gas condensates per day, a major part (500,000 barrels) of which are piped to the Persian Gulf Star Refinery in Hormozgan Province to be converted into gasoline.
“Gas condensate is sold to petrochemical plants in Asalouyeh and Mahshahr in the south as feedstock to produce value-added products and is also offered on the Iran Energy Exchange,” he said.
Natural gas condensate is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that are present as gaseous components in raw natural gas produced from gas fields.
Shamshiri said SPGC is in charge of 12 refineries with 20,000 people on the payroll and produces 700 mcm of natural gas per day, which volume is up 145% (or 400,000 mcm) compared to 2010 when it was 250 mcm/d.
The complex produces 10,000 tons of ethane, 2,000 tons of sulfur and 2,000 tons of LPG per day.
