Iran to overtake Qatar in South Pars gas production: Official

An Iranian deputy oil minister says the country will soon surpass Qatar in terms of producing gas from the huge offshore South Pars gas field, which it shares with Qatar.

Roknoddin Javadi, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), was quoted by Iranian media as saying on Sunday that the Islamic Republic will bring seven new phases of the South Pars gas field online during the current year, which will cause an exponential rise in the country’s gas output.

He added that when the new phases of the offshore gas field come on-stream, Iran's total production of natural gas will increase by 100 million cubic meters per day.

Javadi said development of phases 15 and 16 of the gas field will finish before the end of the current Iranian calendar year (ends March 19, 2016), increasing gas output from those phases by 50 million cubic meters a day.

“In addition, based on current plans, production of natural gas from phases 19, 20 and 21 of this joint field will begin during the current year,” he noted.

Asked if Iran would be able to overtake Qatar in terms of gas production from the South Pars gas field as a result of these developments, the managing director of NIOC stated that when the ongoing development of the 24 phases of the South Pars gas field is complete, Iran would be producing 720-730 million cubic meters per day of gas from the field.

“At this level of production, Iran will certainly surpass Qatar in terms of daily production and treatment of gas from the field,” he added.

Javadi stated that part of the South Pars’ gas will be consumed inside the country, but a larger part will be exported to regional and transregional markets through pipeline or as liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Javadi had already announced in late October that Iran is planning to officially launch phases 15 and 16 of the South Pars gas field before the end of the year through a ceremony to be attended by Iran's President Hassan Rouhani.

Managing Director of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Ali Akbar Sha’banpour had announced in early May that production of natural gas from South Pars gas field will increase by 7 trillion cubic feet per day (tcf/d) before the end of the current Iranian calendar year.

Noting that when the 12th phase of the field becomes fully operational this year, it will produce 2.5 tcf/d of natural gas, the official added, “Also, when phases 15 and 16 come on-stream, they will be producing 2 tcf/d of natural gas.”

During past years, Iran, which sits on the world’s largest gas reserves, has been making efforts to increase gas production by attracting foreign and domestic investment to South Pars gas field.

The huge offshore 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 are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.

The field is estimated to contain a significant amount of natural gas, accounting for about eight percent of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.

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