...

How much gas did Iran produce in 2014?

Oil&Gas Materials 21 January 2015 15:27 (UTC +04:00)
The latest statements made by Iranian officials indicate the country's enriched gas production increased to about 220 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2014
How much gas did Iran produce in 2014?

By Dalga Khatinoglu

The latest statements made by Iranian officials indicate the country's enriched gas production increased to about 220 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2014.

The deputy of Iran's oil minister Hamidreza Araghi said on Jan.18 that Iran's enriched gas production level reached 666 mcm/d, breaking a new record.

He said the country's enriched gas production level was 570 mcm/d until September 2013 and stood at 637 mcm/d during last months of 2014.

Winter 2013

Spring 2014

Summer 2014

Fall 2014

Enriched gas production volume

585 mcm/d

585 mcm/d

610 mcm/d

637 mcm/d

Iran's enriched gas production was about 570 mcm/d in mid-2013, but the country increased its production at South Pars gas field by 12.5 mcm/d in early 2014 until June and increased the level to 660 mcm/d by the end of year step-by-step.

Dry gas production also increased significantly, but less than the domestic peak consumption level during the cold weather months.

National Iranian Gas Company spokesman Majid Bujarzadeh told Shana Jan.21 that currently some 602 mcm/d is consumed in the country, 460 mcm/d in the housing sector, 72 mcm/d and 70 mcm/d in industry and electricity generation sectors respectively.

Bujarzadeh said the country's dry gas usage increased by 73 mcm/d on Jan.20 year-to-year.

Iran's dry gas production gradually reached 585 mcm/d by the end of 2014, according to the official announcements. Iran produced 160 bcm of dry gas during the mid-March, 2013 to mid-November 2013, a 16 bcm increase year-to-year.

Regarding the fact that during last winter Iran increased dry gas production by 12 mcm/d, then the country's dry gas production likely stood at around 198 bcm in 2014, or 26 bcm more than the previous year.

Iran delivers about 35 mcm/d of enriched gas to petrochemical units. The country also re-injected about 76 mcm/d of enriched gas to old oil fields in 2012, but there is not any official statistics about this figure for 2013 and 2014. However, it seems there was not a home for more than 30 to 35 mcm/d of surplus enriched gas to be re-injected to old oil fields in 2014.

Current situation

In January, Iran imported 38.5 mcm/d of dry gas from Turkmenistan and exported 27 mcm/d to Turkey. Iran increased gas imports from Turkmenistan in the fall.

Then the country's gas trade balance is negative by 11.5 mcm/d currently. On the other hand, if Iran re-extracts about 10 to 15 mcm/d of enriched gas from storage facilities, the country's total dry gas consumption almost equals to its production level plus net imports and re-extraction volumes totally.

The country's gas consumption in the housing sector decreased by 2 mcm/d, but delivering dry gas to power plants and industry sector increased about 75 mcm/d on Jan 20 year-to-year.

Edited by CN

Dalga Khatinoglu is an expert on Iran's energy sector, head of Trend Agency's Iran news service

Follow him on @dalgakhatinoglu

Latest

Latest