Iran intends to surpass Qatar gas production

According to authorities in Tehran, Iran will be able to overtake Qatar in the gas production industry by this time next year as they expand operations in the Persian Gulf’s South Pars field. Tehran officials also say Iran will have earned the top spot in this field, outdoing the Qatar production, by March 2017.

The two countries share the massive South Pars natural gas field in the Persian Gulf. It is the world’s largest gas field, with an estimated 1,800 trillion cubic feet (51 trillion cubic meters) of natural gas and some 50 billion barrels (7.9 billion cubic meters) of natural gas condensates.

At present, about 50% of the country’s domestic gas needs is provided by their portion of the gas field. Since March 20 of this year, which is the first month of the Iranian calendar year, over 1.338 million tons of gas-condensate have been exported from South Pars.

Iranian figures state that Qatar produces around 177 billion cubic meters of gas from this field, while Iran currently produces around 132 billion cubic meters from its portion. But Iran has five new phase developments in the works here that are expected to become operational by the spring of next year. Once that happens, production will either equal or exceed Qatar’s.

So far, Iran has invested US$50.5 billion into the development of phases 12 to 24 of South Pars, with five new phases of the gas field set to become operational by March 2017. One of the phases already implemented includes four platforms, each containing five 4,000-meter wells and 900-meter deep horizontal digs.

Qatar started drilling in the South Pars in the early 1980s while Iran only launched operations in the 2000s. Overall, Iran expects gas condensates output from South Pars gas field will reach one million barrels per day.

Source: Oil Price