Oil Minister: South Pars to Increase Gas Refining Capacity by 25mcm/d

(FNA)- Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh underlined that the refining capacity of the South Pars gas field will increase considerably after the new phases come into operation.

“The refining gas capacity of the South Pars will increase by 25 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) this winter,” the Iranian oil minister told FNA in Assalouyeh in Southern Iran on Tuesday.

Zanganeh pointed to the oil ministry’s efforts to produce gas from phases 15 and 16 of the South Pars, and said, “Development of the pending phases of this gas field is a priority of the oil industry and we hope that it will be materialized with the cooperation and efforts of the oil industry managers.

Last month, a senior energy official announced that Iran’s South Pars Special Energy Zone plans to increase its daily production before the end of the current Iranian year (ends March 20, 2014).

“The gas output of the South Pars (field) will increase by 100 million cubic meters per day by the end of the year,” Deputy Managing-Director of the South Pars Special Energy Zone Abbas Dolatizadeh said at the time.

He underlined that the Iranian oil minister has laid emphasis on the development of the South Pars phases.

“Assalouyeh as the country’s energy capital is moving towards development …,” Dolatizadeh said.

The official reiterated that more than 280 million cubic meters of gas from different phases of the South Pars is being presently exploited and this zone supplies 44 percent of Iran’s need to gas.

Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (PSEEZ) was established in 1988 for the utilization of South Pars oil and gas resources and encouraging commercial activities in the field of oil, gas and petrochemical industries.

South Pars gas field is a natural gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the field holds an estimated 1,800 trillion cubic feet (51 trillion cubic meters) of in-situ natural gas and some 50 billion barrels (7.9 billion cubic meters) of natural gas condensate.