“Of the total investment about $30 billion would be for projects in the giant South Pars gas field,” Mohammad Meshkinfam was quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry news website.
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 has been extracted by Iran in past 18 years, Meshkinfam said
“Of the total reserves close to 9 tcm is extractable.”
He said so far $78 billion has 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 need for gas.
Giving a breakdown, he added that around $9 billion was spent on the field between 2002 and 2006 to boost production by 113 mcm/d after four years. 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.”
Close to $24 billion has been spent to develop the field since 2013 and the current production is 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.” The senior official went on to say that 20 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) is 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 decks.”
Phase 11, which is the last phase, is due to be developed in two integrated and consecutive stages. Stage one will consist of drilling 30 wells plus fabrication and erection of two production platforms. Each stage will have 15 wells and produce 56 million cubic meters of gas per day plus 75,000 barrels of gas condensate.
Gas Condensates
In related news, IRNA quoted Hossein Shamshiri, deputy managing director of South Pars Gas Complex, as saying that the plant produces 650,000 barrels of gas condensates per day, a major part (500,000 barrels) of which is 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 on the Iran Energy Exchange.”
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.
“SPGC is in charge of 12 refineries with 20,000 people on the payroll, and produces 680 mcm of natural gas per day.” This volume is up 145% (or 400,000 mcm) compared to 2010 whenit was 250 mcm/d. The complex produces 10,000 tons of ethane, 2,000 tons of sulphur and 2,000 tons of LPG every day.