Deputy Head of NIOC for Development and Engineering Affairs Gholamreza Manuchehri said the new South Pars phase began operation with a daily capacity of 25 million cubic meters of gas and about 40 thousand barrels of gas condensate on March 19 coinciding with the anniversary of the nationalization of oil industry in Iran.
“The sour gas recovered from Phase 20 will be injected into the national gas grid after going through the sweetening process,” noted the official adding “the daily 40 thousand barrels of gas condensate will also add to the country’s current capacity of 650 thousand barrels and will be directly deployed to global markets.”
He maintained that with operation of Phase 20 as well as resumption of production at phases 16 and 19 will add about 60 million cubic meters of gas to production capacity of South Pars field increasing the overall output figure to approximately 520 million cubic meters per day.
Manuchehri stressed that the new projects, in addition to meeting domestic gas demands, will boost the country’s export capabilities saying “with the rise in production of propane, butane and gas condensate, the required feedstock for new and ongoing petrochemical plans will be supplied.”
The official at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said the need to import gas from Turkmenistan will be fully alleviated in the coming year thanks to implementation of new South Pars phases; “additionally, by allocating massive volumes of natural gas to power plants, fuel oil consumption will decline to zero paving the path for increased export of petroleum products.”
“The uplift in South Pars gas output will also provide grounds for promoting CNG use in vehicles and reducing gasoline consumption.”
He went on to state that the recovered gas condensate will be also supplied to Setare Khalij Fars Refinery for Iran to become self-sufficient in gasoline production in the first half of the next Iranian calendar year (to begin March 21).
The offshore platform of SP Phase 21 was installed in December 2016 and came on-stream two weeks ago.
Phase 20 and 21 development of South Pars aims to produce 50 million cubic meters per day of sweet gas, 75 thousand barrels per day of gas condensate, 400 tons a day of sulfur, 1.05 million tons a year of liquefied petroleum gas and one million tons a year of ethane.
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