Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 23
By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:
Iran’s crude oil and gas condensate production reached 4.15 million barrels per day (mb/d) in August 2016, about 0.85 mb/d more than the same month in 2015, according to the Monthly Energy Review of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The output for August is the highest since establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Iran’s crude oil and gas condensate output was 5.861 mb/d in 1973 and 5.350 mb/d in 1975, the EIA statistics indicates.
Earlier, the highest level since 1980 was recorded at 4.139 mb/d in 2005, when ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office.
Currently, Iran produces about 540,000 b/d of gas condensate, almost same as in August. Therefore, Iran’s crude oil production was 3.61 mb/d in the eighth months.
Nearly all of Iran’s gas condensate production came from South Pars gas field, only several phases of which were inaugurated until 2005. During Ahmadinejad’s presidency, the number of active phases reached 10 and the country’s total gas condensate output stood at 360,000 b/d in 2013. During Hassan Rouhani’s presidency, started in mid-2013, several new phases of South Pars started production, and currently 560,000 b/d of gas condensate is produced from the field.
Therefore, the gas condensate share in Iran’s overall oil output has become significant since mid-2005 and continued to grow as of now.
Iran is planning to increase gas condensate output by 1 mb/d by 2021 after all 24 phases of South Pars become operational.
Iran claims that its current crude oil output stands at 3.91 mb/d, but international entities like OPEC and International Energy Agency put the volume at about 3.7 mb/d.