Iran Aims to Overtake Qatar Next Year
Iran is preparing to overtake Qatar in gas production from South Pars joint gas field, called North Dome in Qatar, by March 2017.
Last year, Iran produced 132bn m3 of raw gas from this field, making up about a half of the country's total production. Qatar's output from this field was about 177bn m3.
The CEO of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Ali Akbar Shabanpour said that some $50bn have been invested in South Pars so far, while five new phases are projected to become operational in current fiscal year, started on March 20, to push Iran's gas output from South Pars above Qatar's.
Table: Status of South Pars (as of Jan 2016)
|
Phase |
Progress |
Sweet gas production capacity (mn m3/d) |
|
Phase 1-10 |
100% |
250 |
|
Phase 11 |
0% |
50 |
|
Phase 12 |
97% |
80 |
|
Phase 13 |
75.4% |
50 |
|
Phase 14 |
61% |
50 |
|
Phases 15,16 |
97.8% |
50 |
|
Phases 17,18 |
92.2% |
50 |
|
Phase 19 |
90% |
50 |
|
Phases 20, 21 |
83.4% |
50 |
|
Phases 22-24 |
79.8% |
75 |
Source: oil ministry
Iran started early production from phases 17,18 and 19 during last fiscal year. These fields were projected to become full operational, while the early production from phases 20 and 21 is expected to start in 2016. The final production capacity of these 5 phases is 150mn m3/d, or about 55bn m3/yr.
Shabanpour said that Qatar has been focusing on maintaining gas production level, rather than output growth from South Pars.
Qatar started developing this field 10 years before Iran, but Iran reached Qatar's production level in 2004, with 54bn m3/yr. During Mahmould Ahmadinejad's presidency (2005-2013) Qatar increased the production level to above 177bn m3, which was double Iran's output of about 90bn m3/yr, .
The Iranian side of South Pars has been divided to 24 phases, of which stages 1-10, 12, 15 and 16 are fully operational now. The field is estimated to contain 40 trillion m3 of gas reserves, of which 35% belongs to Iran.
Iran needs to invest a further $30bn in order to complete the South Pars project and increase its production capacity to 260bn m3/yr.
Iran desk