Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.3
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran's South Pars gas field phase 16 supplied its first consignment of refined natural gas, equaling 7.5 million cubic meters, to the national network.
Reza Forouzesh, Development Manager of South Pars phases 15 and 16, said the output of phase 16 is projected to reach 10 million cubic meters per day, Iran's Shana news agency reported on Dec. 2.
Currently, the two phases produce 23 million cubic meters of gas per day, he added.
Three refinery units of the phases 15 and 16 are receiving and refining the gas from phases 6-8. But once the two phases' platforms start production, the refineries will stop receiving gas from other phases, the official explained.
Phases 15 and 16 are projected to produce 56.6 million cubic meters of gas per day, and 1.05 million metric tons of liquid gas (propane and butane) and one million tons of ethane per year.
The Managing Director of National Iranian Gas Company Hamidreza Araqi said on Nov. 24 that Iran gas output will be doubled in the next three years.
"The country's total gas production will reach 330 billion cubic meters in the Iranian calendar year of 1396 (to start on March 21, 2018)," he said.
"Some $62 billion is needed to construct necessary infrastructure," Araqi said.
Deputy Oil Minister Emad Hosseini said on Nov. 22 that five phases of giant South Pars gas field will start production by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2015).
Hosseini said that phases 12, 15, 16, 17 and 18 will most probably come on stream by the end of January 2015, Iran 's IRNA News Agency reported on Nov. 22.
South Pars is part of a wider gas field that is shared with Qatar. The larger field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran's territorial waters (South Pars) in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, referred to as the North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.