TEHRAN – The director of production and operations in Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC), which is in charge of developing Iran’s giant South Pars gas field, said all the necessary measures have been taken for the preparation of the complex for sustained supply of gas during the winter.

“Since the beginning of the year, all the necessary arrangements have been made according to careful planning to ensure constant production from the South Pars platforms, and we are completely ready for winter,” Alireza Ebadi told Shana.

According to the official, the annual overhaul operations for all the South Pars gas field’s platforms have been completed.

He explained that the overhaul of South Pars gas platforms is carried out in the first half of the year due to the reduction in natural gas demand across the country, adding: "Overhaul planning is made in a way that there will be no interruptions due to breakdowns and other technical problems during the cold period of the year.”

The official noted that the Oil Ministry expects the South Pars Gas Complex to supply 650 to 670 million cubic meters per day of gas to the national network during the winter, which will be easily realized.

Mentioning the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the field’s overhaul operations, Ebadi said although due to the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country this year’s overhaul program began with a month delay, the program went on smoothly and all the platform went through overhaul operations on schedule.

He further noted that so far no cases of Covid-19 have been detected among the POGC employees who are working on the South Pars platforms.

“In order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, we have isolated all platforms as much as possible. In the sense that unimportant missions are canceled and unnecessarily visits to the platforms are restricted, and anyone who enters the platform in case of necessity, will be thoroughly monitored according to international safety and health standards,” he explained.

South Pars Gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, is currently divided into 24 standard phases in the Iranian side and 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.

EF/MA