Iran to Launch More S Pars Phases
Iran is preparing to launch phases 13, 22, 23 and 24 of the giant South Pars by March 20, the oil ministry announced March 12.
The combined nominal capacity of the phases is 41.2bn m3/yr and the National Iranian Gas Company said early March that the phases were almost completed. It is not clear whether the inauguration is just a symbolic gesture, coinciding with the end of the financial year.
South Pars is a field between Iran and Qatar – where it is known as the North Field – of which Tehran owns about a third of the reserves, or 13 trillion m3. Iran's side has been divided into 24 phases, of which only phase 11, with 20bn m3/yr capacity, remains to be developed. The company has brought 18 phases on stream.
The US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement with Iran in May 2018 forced French Total to leave South Pars phase 11, selling its stake to Chinese CNPC. But CNPC hasn’t decided yet to start work on the project. Its only partner is Iran's Petropars, which has a 19% stake.
Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh announced that this year the country’s gas production has gone up by 36.5bn m3 to 292bn m3/yr, of which over three quarters came from South Pars. He did not explain where the additional gas came from as only some 5bn m/yr new production capacity came onstream. According to both NGW and Wood Mackenzie’s calculations, Iran’s gas production rose just 6-8bn m3 in 2018. The increase might include gas injected into oil fields.
Wood Mackenzie told NGW that Iran’s sale gas production could have reached 232bn m3 in 2018, of which 16.6bn m3 were exported to Turkey and Iraq. The Iranian parliament published a report that projected domestic consumption to stand at 207bn m³ – excluding 10.65bn m3/yr gas lost in the grid – this fiscal year.
National Iranian Gas Company declined to comment to NGW about 2018 production, owing to the need to “keep the country’s energy trends secret from foreigners in the era of sanctions.”
According to BP statistics, Iran produced 223.9bn m3 in 2017, of which 214.4bn m3 were used at home.