TEHRAN - Managing Director of South Pars Gas Company (SPGC) Hadi Hashemzadeh Farhang has said the SPGC’s gas output increased by 155 percent since the Iranian calendar year 1392 (started on March 21, 2013) up to the end of the previous calendar year (ended on March 19).

The complex’s gas output is going to increase even more in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021), Farhang told IRNA.

According to the official, six years ago only five refineries were operational in the complex, while the number of active refineries reached 12 by the end of the past Iranian calendar year 1398.

Farhang noted that SPGC accounts for nearly 74 percent of the country’s natural gas supply.

He further pointed to the significant increase in the giant South Pars gas field’s production capacity over the past six years and said the field’s output was about 280 million cubic meters (mcm) in the Iranian calendar year 1391 (ended in March 2013), while the figure is going to reach 750 mcm by the end of the current calendar year.

Gas supply to the rural areas has also improved with the development of South Pars, he said, adding: “The rural population enjoying the natural gas supply in the Iranian calendar year 1392 was 14,000 villages and now the figure has exceeded 30,000 villages and by the end of the current year national gas network will cover more than 32,000 villages.”

Gas exports have also increased by 90 percent with the increase of South Pars gas production, Iran currently exports an average of about 80 mcm of gas per day, the official stressed.

South Pars Gas Company is operating 14 gas refineries in Southern Iran that are currently processing the gas extracted from the country’s giant South Pars gas field which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf.

The mentioned gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which, called South Pars, are in Iran’s territorial waters. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, called North Dome, are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.

The field, currently divided into 24 standard phases in the Iranian side, 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.

All the offshore operations of the development project of the field, except for phase 11, were completed in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19).

EF/MA