Baku, Azerbaijan, May 31
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: The first liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) production unit was launched at Iran's South Pars gas field phases 15 and 16, said Reza Forouzesh, the development project manager of phases.
The de-ethanization unit and the sulfur recovery unit (SRU) of the two phases will be launched by the end of the current Iranian fiscal month of Khordad (June 21), Iran's Shana news agency quoted Forouzesh as saying on May 31.
Currently, the platform 18A of Phases 15 and 16 injects 31 million cubic meters of gas to the national network, he noted.
A consortium of Iranians companies is working on the onshore and offshore development of the two phases.
Phases 15 and 16 are projected to produce 56.6 million cubic meters of gas per day, and 1.05 million metric tons of LPG (propane and butane) and one million metric tons of ethane per year.
The Managing Director of National Iranian Gas Company Hamidreza Araqi said in November 2014 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.
Iran is currently developing 10 onshore and six offshore phases of the South Pars gas field, producing 300 million cubic meters of gas per day.
The South Pars gas field, divided into 28 phases, is located in the Gulf on the common border between Iran and Qatar. It is estimated that the field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of condensate.