TEHRAN – With the completion of all 37 offshore platforms of Iran’s giant South Pars gas field, which the country shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, the offshore sector of the field was officially inaugurated by President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday.

According to Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC)’s office of public relations, held in southwestern Bushehr Province, the inauguration ceremony was attended by senior officials including Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and POGC Managing Director Mohammad Meshkinfam.

As reported, for the development of the South Pars gas field which is currently divided into 27 phases, 37 offshore platforms were constructed, installed, and went operational and these platforms are connected to onshore refineries through 3,200 kilometers of 32-inch seabed pipelines.

Maintaining SP production level should be next government’s priority

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Zanganeh pointed to the significance of the work that has been done on the South Pars gas field in recent years and noted that maintaining the current production level of the field should be the priority of the next government.

The official noted that preventing the decline in production and maintaining the current output level requires $25-$30 billion of investment.

“The most important thing that needs to be done in South Pars from now on, and we prepared its outline in the form of a document and submitted it to the future government, is to prevent the pressure drop and to maintain the current production levels; in this regard, we need 25 to 30 billion dollars of investment, part of which has already been attracted, for example, a contract has been signed with OTC [Oil Turbo Compressor Construction Company] to build suitable compressors to increase pressure at sea and on land.”

He mentioned South Pars as the most important national development plan of Iran in the last 100 years and said: “The first contract for the development of the South Pars gas field was signed in September 1997 and by mid-2005, 10 phases of South Pars had been put into operation.”

Zanganeh further underlined the significant increase in the production from the giant gas field, saying: “With the increase of gas production from the South Pars joint field and other gas fields, we reached the daily production record of one billion cubic meters.”

The minister also referred to the measures taken for the future development of South Pars and stated that this year 40 million cubic meters of new capacity will be added to the field’s total output.

Over $25b invested for SP development in 8 years

Elsewhere in the inauguration ceremony, POGC head Mohammad Meshkinfam pointed to the huge amount of investment made in the South Pars gas field over the past eight years and said: “Over the past eight years, about $25 billion has been invested in the development of the remaining phases of the South Pars development project, of which more than $10 billion has been related to offshore facilities.”

“Currently, gas production from the South Pars gas field has reached 700 million cubic meters per day, which is 2.5 times more than the daily production in the [Iranian calendar year] 1392 (started in March 2013) in which the figure was 280 million cubic meters,” he said.

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

The development of the South Pars field started in 1998 and 29 different phases were defined for the project along with a separate oil block. The field, however, is currently divided into 27 standard offshore phases, the output of which is processed by 14 gas refineries on land.

EF/MA

Photo: Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh