“The total capacity of Shourijeh facility, which currently stands at 2.25 billion cubic meters per day, is planned to reach 4.5 bcm per day,” Managing Director of Iran Gas Engineering and Development Company Reza Noshadi said.
Due to the need to supply gas in the north and northeast in the cold seasons when consumption rises to a great extent and the sharp decline in production expected in the Mozdouran reservoir by 2025, the development project has been planned to increase the capacity of Shourijeh storage facility, which is the main feedstock supplier of Khangiran Refinery in Sarakhs County, Khorasan Razavi Province, the Oil Ministry’s news agency reported.
The engineering group is expected to complete the project within three years. The project includes drilling 28 production/injection wells, construction of wellhead facilities and pipelines, building a gas collection and distribution center, construction of gas injection facilities with a capacity of 20 million cubic meters per day and building refinery facilities for gas processing with a capacity of 10 mcm per day.
MAPNA is a group of companies involved in the development and execution of thermal and renewable power plants, oil and gas, rail transport and other industrial projects.
It is involved in a range of projects, including oil and gas field development, onshore and offshore drilling services, construction of downstream processing units, auxiliary facilities, utility and storage tanks, as well as the design and manufacture of equipment such as turbo-compressors for pipelines, refineries and processing units.
Last year, MAPNA was chosen by MEED Company as one of the top 10 engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors, in the oil, gas and petrochemical industry in the Middle East and North Africa.
As a routine procedure, gas is injected into reservoirs in the current fiscal year’s first eight months (March 21-Nov. 21) and used in the last four months of each year.
Currently, Shourijeh and Sarajeh reservoirs in the northeast and central regions are the only natural gas storage facilities.
As a leading gas producer, Iran is expanding its underground gas storage capacity with plans to increase the capacity of Sarajeh and Shourijeh.
Plans are also underway to add five storage facilities to secure stable gas supply, especially in the cold season. Freezing temperatures in some regions fall to -15 degrees.
Iran Gas Engineering and Development Company is conducting technical research in five new areas, one of which is the Kashan salt dome in Isfahan Province.
Most oil reservoirs are not suitable for storing gas and this explains why research on other reserves, whose geological formations are made up of salt and water, is on the IGEDC agenda. The construction of new gas reservoirs is a priority for the Oil Ministry.
Noshadi noted that gas production has increased from 7 mcm per day to 870 mcm per day in the past four decades.
Speaking about gas transmission lines, he said, “Today, the construction of 1,870 kilometers of large-sized pipes are on the agenda of IGEDC.”
Iran is to increase its gas output capacity to meet the increasing demand of all sectors.
In case all the requirements of the plans are provided, in the next 10 years, daily gas output will reach 1.5 billion cubic meters from the current 1 bcm.
In terms of gas reserves, Iran is second in the world after Russia, having about 34 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves.