TEHRAN - Managing Director of the Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Mohammadhosain Motejali has said that the giant South Pars gas field provides 70 percent of domestic needs for natural gas, which is the reason behind the importance of pouring money into the development of the field.

Speaking in a specialized meeting of the POGC on attracting investment and providing commodities and new technologies for gas field development plans he said that concurrent with the 13th administration’s taking office, when the Petroleum Ministry took the initiative to accelerate the implementation of uncompleted projects, among them raising gas production capacity, some effective measures was taken to reinforce energy security including launching production from the giant South Pars gas field phase 11.

“ Despite launching new phases and rising gas production, the gap between gas production and consumption has been widening increasingly, surfacing natural gas imbalances in some seasons of the year,” he said.

Over the past 25 years, the Petroleum Ministry and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) have deployed various approaches to meet the necessary capital for developing the upstream sector of the South Pars gas field, he said, noting up to now as much as 86 billion dollars have been invested in developing the giant gas field mainly through singing buyback and EPC contracts plus newly signed contracts between NIOC and domestic investors and contractors.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said: “In addition to accelerating gas field development plans of Kish, Farzad B, North Pars, Golshan, Ferdowsi, Balal, the second phase of oil layers of the South Pars gas field as well as its boosting pressure programs; it is necessary to attract new investments as well as deploying new technologies.”

 The POGC head further said two decades after the beginning of gas production in the South Pars gas field, there are signs of a gradual decrease of pressure from reservoirs, adding efforts are underway to sustain the level of gas withdrawal by using different methods including acidizing wells and drilling new wells.

previous years’ mechanisms of allocating part of oil revenues to the development of upstream sector projects should be reinforced while at the same time, new approaches are needed to be deployed for the implementation of these huge projects, Motejali said.

“POGC, with the production of more than 700 million cubic meters of gas per day, carries alone the burden of meeting 70 percent of the country's needs, an issue that underlines the importance of taking into consideration sustainability and maintaining the amount of gas withdrawal from South Pars gas field more than before.” The official concluded.

EF/