Pars Oil and Gas Company is planning to drill 35 wells in South Pars to increase gas production in the huge field that Iran shares with Qatar, the deputy head of POGC’s Reservoir Operations Engineering Unit said.
“The development of South Pars is the main mission of POGC and one of the priorities of the National Iranian Oil Company, and the new wells are expected to become operational in the next three years,” Shobeir Nabavi was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana.
“The Iranian side of the field is estimated to contain about 11.6 trillion cubic meters of gas, and in the past 20 years since the beginning of gas production at the field, it has produced over 2.1 tcm of gas,” he added.
Nabavi noted that so far 341 wells have been drilled in the field, of which 308 wells are currently active.
Referring to the daily gas production capacity of 700 million cubic meters from the massive offshore field, Nabavi said, “With the commissioning of South Pars Phase 11, the gas production capacity of the field will reach 730 mcm per day.”
The initial pressure of the South Pars gas reservoir in the Kangan and Dalan layers, which are located at a depth of 3,000 meters in the Persian Gulf, has decreased from about 5,200 PSI to 3,500 PSI in the past 20 years.
The official called the installation of pressure-boosting compressors the most important method of maintaining gas production in the field and said NIOC plans to prioritize this issue in the coming years by installing pressure-boosting compressors to prevent a drop in production.
Developing Other Gas Fields
In addition to focusing on raising production in the South Pars Gas Field, POGC also attempts to develop other gas fields such as Kish, North Pars, Bilal, Golshan and Ferdowsi, as well as Farzad A and B.
Nabavi said Kish Gas Field is located in the Persian Gulf waters, with a minimum in place storage of 1.6 tcm of gas, which is the second largest gas field after South Pars.
The development of the field started in 2018 and continues in three phases. According to the plans, the first phase will be completed next year with 14 wells and a daily gas production capacity of 28.3 million cubic meters.
A 200-km pipeline is planned to be laid to connect the field to refineries in South Pars Gas Field and Fajr Jam Gas Refinery in Bushehr.
According to the official, engineering studies regarding development of the North Pars Gas Field have also been carried out.
“The field is located in the Persian Gulf in the south of Bushehr Province with a gas reserve of over 1.5 tcm,” he added.
North Pars is one of the biggest independent gas fields of the country. A brief survey of North Pars shows that 17 wells have so far been drilled and 26 offshore platforms have been installed there.
North Pars has the capacity to produce 100 million cubic meters of gas per day. Such a recovery would require the drilling of 46 wells. The rate of recovery envisaged for North Pars stands at 61%.
Regarding the latest measures taken for the development of the Belal Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, Nabavi said, “Currently, one appraisal well is being drilled in the offshore part of the field and the drilling of seven wells have been planned. When completed, the field can produce 14.1 million cubic meters of gas per day.”
As per the timeframe, drilling operations are expected to be completed within 40 months.
The produced sour gas will be transferred to the offshore platform of Phase 12 of South Pars Gas Field and will be piped to the phase’s onshore refinery via an undersea pipeline after processing.
Belal, a joint gas field, straddles the maritime boundary between Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf. It is located east of the giant South Pars, 90 km southwest of Lavan Island. The field is estimated to hold 170 billion cubic meters of gas reserves and its proven gas condensate in place is more than 100 million barrels.
Last June, NIOC took an operational step in using nanofluids in the implementation of enhanced oil recovery methods with nanofluid injection into the Surmeh reservoir of the Belal field, which is the first such operation in the country aimed at increasing oil recovery.
After examining the feasibility of injecting nanofluids as one of the new methods to enhance oil recovery, the knowhow for producing suitable nanoemulsions was acquired to boost oil recovery.
