Iran to Become Self-sufficient in Gas Production by Next 4 Months
Iran will become self-sufficient in gas production within the next 4 months once phases 15 and 16 of the South Pars gas field become operational.
Ebadollah Abdollahi, the commander of Iran’s Khatamol Anbiya Construction Headquarters (belongs to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), which is tasked with implementing the project, said the phases will come on stream by the next four months, making the country independent of importing gas.
With a total production capacity of 52 million cubic meters per day, the two phases will make the country totally self-sufficient in gas production, Shana news agency quoted Abdollahi as saying on December 25.
The inauguration of phases 15 and 16 had scheduled to be on December 20, but has been postponed.
According to Iran’s official statistics, the country imported about 7.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Turkmen gas during last fiscal year, ended on March 21st. The annual report of BP, released on June 11th also indicates that Turkmenistan exported 6.5 bcm of gas to Iran in 2014.
In July 2006, the National Iranian Oil Company signed a deal with two domestic contractors, namely Khatamol Anbiya and Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company for developing the onshore and offshore sections of the project, respectively.
The development of phases 15 and 16 aims to producing around 50 million cubic meters of sweet gas to be supplied to residential, commercial, and industrial units, as well as producing 80,000 barrels of gas condensates to be supplied to refineries, and 400 tons of sulfur to be exported to international markets.
Moreover, 1.05 tons of LPG (propane and butane) and one million ton of ethane are projected to be produced.
South Pars, divided into 29 development phases, contains 40 trillion cubic metres (tcm) of natural gas. It covers an area of 9,700 square kilometres, of which 3,700 square kilometres are in Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometres are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters. The gas field is estimated to contain about 8% of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.
Currently Iran produces about 700 mcm per day of enriched gas and plans to increase raw gas production to 1,100 mcm per day by late 2018.