Tehran, Iran, Nov. 30
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
The Phase 12 of Iran's South Pars gas field will increase its production rate to 70 million cubic meters per day.
Jamshid Sourani, the planning manager of phase 12's development plan, said that the phase will keep the mentioned production rate until the country's consumption level falls, Iran's ISNA News Agency reported on Nov. 30.
"Phase 12 is the biggest phase of the gas field with the projected output capacity of 85 million cubic meters per day," he explained.
"The phase is also projected to daily produce 120,000 barrels of gas condensates and 750 metric tons of sulfur," he said.
Sourani went on to note that some 1.5 million barrels of phase 12's gas condensates will be exported in the coming days.
"We previously exported 4.5 million barrels," he noted. The phase currently produces 250 metric tons of sulfur per day.
Iran's South Pars gas field phase 12 started pumping gas to the national network on Nov. 26.
Rasoul Fallahnejad, Phase 12 Development Project Manager, said the fourth gas refining unit has been put into operation, increasing the phase's output by 14 million cubic meters per day.
He added that that the platform A of the phase 12 is currently producing 27 mcmpd. Platform B will come on stream in the current month and platform C will come on stream in the next month, he said.
Mohammad Javad Shams, the CEO of Petropars Ltd., which is tasked with developing Phase 12 of the South Pars gas field, said in May that Phase 12 is 95 percent complete.
South Pars, a non-associated gas field located offshore in the middle of the Persian Gulf, is Iran's largest gas field. South Pars is a portion of a larger gas structure that straddles the territorial water borders of Iran and Qatar. It is called the North field in Qatar.
South Pars reserves account for roughly 40% of Iran's total gas reserves, and the field is also estimated to hold 17 million barrels of condensate in place. Phase 12 is the South Pars' biggest phase in terms of volume of activities as well as investment and production levels.
Iran hasn't been able to commission any new gas field (even a phase of gas field) completely since 2009 and the progress in the country's biggest gas field - South Pars) had been very slow during 2009 to 2013.
In last winter, Iran started early production of gas from the phase 12 of South Pars and increased the volume to 25 mcmpd in June.
Iran holds 17% of the world's proved natural gas reserves and more than one-third of OPEC's reserves. Iran has a high success rate of natural gas exploration, in terms of wildcat drilling, which is estimated at 79% compared to the world average success rate of 30% to 35%, according to FGE.