Zanganeh Reiterates Policy to Augment SP Gas Production

EghtesadOnline: One of the policy priorities of the Oil Ministry is to expand domestic gas infrastructure and plug the gap in natural gas production with neighboring Qatar in the giant South Pars field, says Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.

News ID: ۷۴۰۳۰۴

11 March 2017

According to the oil minister "Existing plans call for boosting gas output from South Pars to 600 million cubic meters per day. Along with the prospective increase in production, six branches of the National Gas Trunkline would to be developed to carry gas from South Pars in the Persian Gulf to the northern regions."

Zanganeh made the statement on Thursday on the sidelines of launching five gas compressor stations in the city of Kashan in the central Isfahan Province, Mehr News Agency reported.

He described the commissioning of the compressor stations as a major step toward stabilizing gas supply nationwide, and added that the Rouhani administration has made significant investments and headways in the key gas sector, Financial Tribune reported.

"A single gas compressor station costs around $100 million. Over the past three years, close to 3 trillion rials (around $790 million) has been invested in developing compressor stations and gas pipelines, including the 8th Iran Gas Trunkline (IGAT-8)," the minister noted.

The new facilities, which are part of the IGAT-8, will increase the capacity of the pipeline from 60 million cubic meters a day to 110 mcm/d.

Each trunkline and its compressors are designed to carry 110 million cubic meters of natural gas per day on completion.

"We will match Qatar's production rate from South Pars in the near future," Zanganeh said.

Tehran is trailing Doha in production from South Pars, which is known as the North Dome in the Arab country. Iran is reportedly pumping around 500 mcm/d of gas from the joint field, while the small Arab country's output is estimated at 650-700 mcm/d.

--- Production Goal

Iran wants to increase daily gas output to a total of 1.2 billion cubic meters by 2021 from around 800 million cubic meters. Nearly two-thirds of the gas output comes from the South Pars field.

The field holds an estimated 40 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, or roughly 8% of the world’s reserves and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.

"Under the Rouhani administration, gas output from South Pars increased by 300 mcm/d and 11 phases of the mega project will be launched by the end of the tenure of the government" this summer, the minister was quoted as saying.

In the previous fiscal year, South Pars output increased by nearly 100 mcm/d, thanks to the launch of major projects, such as phases 12, 15 and 16. The government plans to inaugurate phases 17-21 of the field by the end of next month.

Zanganeh also pointed to the ongoing efforts to replace petroleum products with gas as feedstock for power plants.

In 2013, an estimated $18 billion worth of petroleum products were burned for electricity generation, making up more than 40% of all feedstock supplies to power plants. But the volume has been cut to 10% on the back of higher gas production from South Pars.