Iran Extracts 62.86bcm of Natural Gas in 10 Months

Iranian experts and technicians have recovered about 63 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas from different phases of the country’s South Pars gas field since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started March 20, 2012), official data said.

In the said period, 2.65 bcm of natural gas was extracted from South Pars Phase 1, 14.7bcm from phases 2 and 3, 15.7bcm from phases 4 and 5, 18.7 bcm from phases 6-8, and 11.11 bcm from phases 9 and 10, the official figures released by the government showed.

According to the official figures, Iran had recovered more than 84.7 bcm of natural gas from different phases of South Pars earning the country a total of $42bln revenues.

In November, Managing-Director of Pars Oil and Gas Company Mousa Souri had announced that Iran will increase gas production in the giant South Pars gas field, adding that the country would surpass Qatar’s gas production in the shared field.

Souri said at the time Iran’s gas recovery from South Pars would equal Qatar’s after five new phases of the giant field come on stream.

He added that the development of phases 12, 15, 16, 17 and 18 of South Pars would add nearly 200 million cubic meters per day (mcmpd) of sour gas to the shared field’s output on the Iranian side.

Iran is currently producing 300 mcmpd of gas from South Pars.

Earlier this week, Iran’s oil minister announced that two phases of the South Pars gas field will come online by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (on March 20, 2013).

Phases 15 and 16 of South Pars oil and gas field will be operational by the end of current Iranian year, Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi said on Wednesday.

He told reporters that executive works for phases 17 and 18 of South Pars gas field are well on right track and they will come on stream in the next Iranian year on schedule.

The South Pars gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, i.e. the North Dome, are in Qatar’s territorial waters.

The South Pars gas field holds 8 percent of total gas reserves of the world and half of the country’s proven gas reserves as well as is the host of the most important industrial complexes of the country and the most important part of oil industry’s value chain.