South Pars Gas Production, Sales Summarized

Production of gas condensates from South Pars Gas Field in the previous fiscal that ended in March amounted to 203 million barrels, the export planning manager of South Pars Gas Company said.

"Of the total output, 154 mProduction of gas condensates from South Pars Gas Field in the previous fiscal that ended in Million barrels were shipped to destinations and 49 million barrels were sold in the domestic market," Abdolrahman Salehi was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency on Saturday.

Condensates are in the twilight zone between crude oil and natural gas. They possess characteristics of both oil and gas, and have values and market drivers both similar to, and distinctly separate from, oil and gas.

More than 146 billion cubic meters of natural gas was produced from South Pars in the said period or 400 million cubic meters daily.

According to the official, more than 28 bcm of sour gas was delivered to Fajr, Ilam and Bidboland refineries as well as Aqajari oil wells via the 5th Iran National Gas Trunkline (IGAT-5) in fiscal 2016-17.

IGAT-5 transfers sour gas produced in South Pars phases 6, 7 and 8 to Khuzestan Province for injection into oil wells to boost extraction or sold to refineries and petrochemical plants as feedstock.

Salehi added that butane and propane production from South Pars gas output stood at 1 million and 1.6 million tons respectively, of which 900,000 and 1.618 million tons were exported.

SPGC's granular sulfur output during the 12 months reached 522,000 tons, nearly all of which was shipped to international markets.

Since the easing of international economic sanctions in January last year, Iran's gas condensates exports reached a daily average of 550,000 barrels from around 150,000 barrels per day in 2012 when trade and financial restrictions were in place.

"With each barrel at about $40, export of 50 million barrels of condensates generates $2 billion in revenues," Ali Kardor, the National Iranian Oil Company managing director said this year.

Condensate output is slated to reach 1 million barrels a day upon the launch of all phases of South Pars, according to the NIOC.

Iran is in the process of expanding exports of oil and gas byproducts, such as petrochemicals and condensates. The main buyers of Iranian gas condensates are the same as its traditional oil customers, namely China, India, South Korea, Turkey and Japan.

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. The field has a capacity of producing 820 mcm/d and 1 mcm/d of gas and gas condensates, respectively.