BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) is interested in increasing gas exports, as well as fully supplying gas to industrial facilities, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister and the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Mohsen Khojasteh Mehr said, Trend reports citing the company’s website.
According to Khojasteh Mehr, in this regard, the NIOC is focusing on increasing gas extraction, and the company has prepared a long-term program for this purpose.
“Under the program, Iran's gas extraction potential will increase 1.5 times in 8-10 years. In other words, the country’s current daily gas extraction potential will increase from 1 billion cubic meters to 1.5 billion cubic meters,” he said.
The CEO also added that one of the issues included in the program is to maintain and increase extraction from the Iran-Qatar joint South Pars gas field (called North Dome in Qatar), as well as the development and improvement of the 11th phase of the field.
The deputy minister noted that the first stage of gas extraction from the 11th phase of the field will begin next Iranian year (March 21, 2022 through March 20, 2023). The excavations have already been accelerated in the mentioned phase, and currently, the platform is being carried there.
There are currently 22 gas fields operating in Iran. According to the report of the NIOC, Iran has about 33 trillion cubic meters of extractable gas reserves.
At present, Iran extracts 0.3 trillion cubic meters of gas a year. The existing gas reserves will meet Iran's needs for more than 50 years. At the same time, operations on the exploration of new gas fields are underway.
The South Pars gas field (called North Dome in Qatar) is a joint gas field of Iran and Qatar. The proven reserves of the South Pars Gas Field are estimated at 51 trillion cubic meters of gas, of which 36 trillion are extractable. Iran's share in the field is 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensate. Iran has so far spent $90 billion on projects of the South Pars gas field.
The phases of the South Pars gas field are located in an area of 3.7 km. Iran has extracted more than 1.8 trillion cubic meters of gas and 2.2 billion barrels of gas condensate worth $335 billion by the end of last Iranian year (March 20, 2021).
In 2017, the project to develop the 11th phase of the South Pars gas field was entrusted to France's Total, China's CNPCI and Iran's Petropars.
However, the foreign companies have refused to carry out operations at the 11th phase of the South Pars gas field as a result of US sanctions against Iran. As a result, the operations at this phase were fully entrusted to the Petropars Operation and Management Company (POMC).
In 2019, the project will be fully entrusted to Petropars, and it is projected that 2 billion cubic feet (about 56.6 million cubic meters) and 80,000 barrels of gas condensate will be extracted in the first stage.
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