Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 6
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend:
Once phase 18 of the South Pars gas field comes on stream some 500 million cubic feet will be added to Iran's total offshore gas output, Deputy Oil Minister Roknoddin Javadi said on December 5.
According to Javadi, phases 17 and 18 will come on stream in the first half of the next calendar year (starts March 21, 2014), the IRNA News Agency reported.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on December 3 that developing the giant South Pars gas field is the oil ministry's top priority.
"President Rouhani has stressed that the gas field should become fully operational as soon as possible, so the ministry will do its best to facilitate the development projects at different phases," the Fars News Agency quoted Zanganeh as saying.
He went on to note that the country's gas sweetening capacity will increase by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2014).
"The gas sweetening output of phases 15 and 16 of the South Pars refinery will reach 25 million cubic meters per day by the end of the current year," he said.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on November 29 that the coming winter will be the hardest one in the country's history in terms of gas shortage.
However, Zanganeh said the Iranians will face no difficulty during the season, the IRNA News Agency reported.
Zanganeh also said the development projects of the South gas field's phases will be accelerated in the next calendar year (to start March 21, 2014).
Iran's domestic gas consumption has reached half a billion cubic meters per day.
The figure shows a nine to 10 per cent increase compared to the same period of time during the previous year.
The increasing demand from households has caused a gas shortage in some parts of the country, the Mehr News Agency reported.
Currently Iran's power plants need 140-150 million cubic meters of gas per day, but with the gas shortage the country has to face, the power plants have turned to consuming gas oil or kerosene.
Iran's households and business units' consumption currently stands at 340-345 million cubic meters which is 15-20 per cent more than the same period in the previous year.
The Mehr News Agency previously reported that based on the data collected by Iran's Oil Ministry, the country needs over 700 million cubic meters of gas per day in the coming winter.
According to the latest report released by United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), Iran's gross gas output in 2011 was around 224 billion cubic meters. Some 67 per cent of the mentioned amount was turned into dry natural gas, while 16 per cent was injected into the oil wells, and some 17 per cent burned.
The British Petroleum Company also said in its latest report that Iran's dry natural gas output in the previous year was around 160.5 billion cubic meters.
In general Iran's dry natural gas output plus the amount injected into the oil wells stand at 570 million cubic meters per day.
Iran's gas consumption in the warm months is low. So the country could have stored a considerable amount of gas in its storage facilities for the cold months. However, currently just the Sarajeh gas storage facility with 3.3 billion cubic meters capacity is operational which can only supply enough gas for five days of consumption at the aforementioned rate.