Iranian Gas Refineries Nearing 1 Billion Cubic Meters Output Target

Recounting that the total capacity for processing natural gas in the country has reached 900 million cubic meters a day, or 328.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) a year, Zardouyan said on Sunday that gas refineries in Iran had undergone major renovation and restructuring programs until September this year allowing them to be ready for processing enough natural gas needed for the cold winter months.

“The promise to increase gas processing capacity to 900 million cubic meters per day has been realized,” said Zardouyan, who serves as coordinating and supervising manager at the National Iranian Gas Company.

The official said bulk of the natural gas that reaches refineries in Iran is processed for household consumption purposes and the rest goes to the production of refined products, including the liquefied natural gas (LNG) which has a high demand outside of Iran and in neighboring countries.

The announcement on increased natural gas processing capacity in Iran comes amid massive government plans to increase gas output to levels near 1 bcm per day.

Trailing Russia, Iran sits on the second largest gas reserves in the world while it ranks third internationally in terms of daily output.

That has come mainly thanks to development plans at South Pars, the world’s largest gas field which is shared with neighboring Qatar in the Persian Gulf.

The expansion of the South Pars has continued over the past years despite a raft of US sanctions imposed on Iran’s oil and gas industry.

Those sanctions even forced the French energy giant Total to withdraw from a major agreement to develop the gas field last year.

Last Tuesday, Head of Production Operations at the Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Hadi Fakhrzadeh announced that Iranian engineers and technicians managed to overhaul 22 offshore platforms in the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, independent of any foreign company or entity and depending 100% on domestic capabilities and potentials.

Fakhrzadeh added that the overhaul operations of 22 offshore platforms in the giant South Pars Gas Field have come to an end after 160 days, adding that the annual overhauls were aimed sustainable and sufficient supply of gas in different seasons, particularly in winter.

He noted that natural gas, as a key part of the country's energy mix, plays an important role in meeting the growing need for an environmentally friendly energy source, adding the overhaul operations took 160 working days and entailed over 8,800 orders to be addressed.

The official said that on average, overhaul operations of every platform had been reduced from 17 days in 2009 to 7 days in 2019.

South Pars field is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.

The giant reservoir is being developed in 24 phases.

Last month, CEO of the Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Mohammad Meshkinfam said that Iran is planning to increase the volume of its daily output from the South Pars gas field, which the country shares with Qatar, by 50 million cubic meters per day.

Iran is currently producing 630 mcm/d of gas from the joint offshore field, and is planning to bring gas production from the supergiant South Pars gas field to 680 mcm/d by launching new platforms, Meshkinfam said, during a visit to the gas field, where he added that development projects in phases 13, 14 and 22-24 were ongoing by domestic companies.

In September, Deputy Director for Development and Engineering Affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Reza Dehqan said that his country is steadily developing its oil and gas projects, reminding that Washington’s sanctions are nothing new to Tehran.

In a televised interview, Dehqan said that sanctions were nothing new in the oil industry of Iran, adding that developing the oil industry in the country never stops.

He added that the fate of all the country’s joint oil and gas fields would be completely determined within the next two years, adding that development of several fields was currently underway in the country.