TEHRAN – Managing Director of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC), which is in charge of developing the country’s giant South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, has said proper planning must be made in order to maintain the field’s production level in the future.

“So far $80 billion has been invested for the development of the field and from now on we should try and make planning to maintain the production levels,” Mohammad Meshkinfam said on Thursday in a meeting with the new Oil Minister Javad Oji.

He noted that out of a total of 400 wells in the offshore section, 336 wells are active and operational adding: “With the implementation of Corrosion Resistant Alloy (CRA) pipes, other remaining gas wells, whose drilling operations have been completed in the offshore section, will go operational.”

Referring to the operation of all offshore platforms in the South Pars phases, the official said: “Currently, 37 platforms are operational [in this field] and only two platforms of phase 11 have remained. With these two platforms going operational, we will have a total of 39 active platforms in South Pars gas field.”

Pointing to the field’s average daily production, Meshkinfam put the field’s output on Thursday at 617 million cubic meters (mcm) and noted that POGC will ensure an average daily output of 700 mcm in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21).

He further mentioned the phase 11 development project, saying: "Over the past 20 years, nearly $80 billion has been invested in South Pars, as a result of which the offshore section of this field has been completed except for the Phase 11 which will be completed over the next two years."

The POGC head further pointed out that currently 700,000 barrels of gas condensate are also produced on a daily basis from South Pars gas field, saying: “Of course, this figure will change in proportion to the amount of gas production, but eventually, after completing the remaining sections, the production capacity of gas condensate in South Pars will reach a maximum of one million barrels per day.”

South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters and the remaining 6,000 square kilometers, called North Dome, are situated in the Arab country’s territorial waters.

Earlier this week, POGC had announced the preparation for new drilling operations in this field.

Ali Akbar Majed, head of POGC’s Oil and Gas Engineering Department said planning is underway for drilling a new descriptive well at the northern part of the mentioned field, the POGC portal reported on Tuesday.

According to Majed, identifying and exploring undeveloped parts of the South Pars gas field is among POGC’s top programs for maintaining production from this joint field.

“Due to the natural decrease in the pressure of the South Pars field gas reservoir following its production over the last 20 years, the production rate of this reservoir will inevitably decline even more in the coming years, so the company has put exploring the undeveloped parts of the field on the agenda by drilling new wells,” the official said.

He further noted that last year another descriptive well was drilled in the eastern part of the South Pars gas field and the results of the drilling operations will become available to the Oil Ministry in the near future.

EF/MA