Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.1
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran will double gas production in Zagross region, which covers southern provinces of Fars, Hormozgan, and Bushehr, and southwestern provinces of Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad, and Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari.
Zagross Oil and Gas Company managing director Ahmad Seraji said the gas production will increase from the curret 99 million cubic meters to 222 million cubic meters in winter, the Mehr news agency reported on August 1.
Since the beginning of the current year (began on March 21), over 24 billion cubic meters of gas has been produced from the Zagross region, he noted.
The Zagross region has four non-associate gas fields, namely Nar-o Kangan, Aghar-o Dalan, Sarkhoun, and Parsian.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its annual report about Iran's energy sector released on July 22 predicted that Iran's natural gas production will increase in the coming years.
Although repeated delays in field development and the sanctions have had negative impact on the country's gas sector, Iran's natural gas output has been on the rise in the past few years.
Iran's gross natural gas production totaled almost 8.2 trillion cubic feet in 2012, increasing 3% from the previous year. Of the 8.2 trillion cubic feet produced, most of it was marketed (6.54 trillion cubic feet), and the remainder was reinjected into oil wells to enhance oil recovery (1 trillion cubic feet) and vented and flared (0.62 trillion cubic feet).
Reinjecting natural gas plays a critical role in oil recovery at Iran's fields. As a result, natural gas reinjection is expected to increase in the coming years.
Some estimates indicate that NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company) will require 7 to 8 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas for reinjection into its oil fields in the next decade.
Iran also flares (burns off) a substantial portion of its gross production. According to Cedigaz, Iran flared the second-largest amount of natural gas in the world in 2012, after Russia. Gas is flared because of the lack of infrastructure to capture and transport gas associated with oil production.
In 2012, almost 40% of Iran's gross natural gas production came from the South Pars field.
Dry natural gas production is a subset of marketed production, which includes dry natural gas, liquid hydrocarbons, and natural gas used in field and processing plant operations.
In 2012, 69% of the gross natural gas production was marketed as dry gas. Iran's dry natural gas production has rapidly increased to more than 5.6 trillion cubic feet in 2012, almost double the amount produced 10 years ago.
Iran is the world's third-largest dry natural gas producer, after the United States and Russia, and accounted for nearly 5% of the world's dry natural gas production in 2012. The vast majority of Iran's production is consumed domestically.
Iran is the second-largest proved natural gas reserve holder in the world. According to Oil & Gas Journal, as of January 2014, Iran's estimated proved natural gas reserves were 1,193 trillion cubic feet, second only to Russia.
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