Iran installs largest platform at South Pars gas field
By Sara Rajabova
Iran installed the largest platform of the South Pars gas field during Phase 19, Shana news agency quoted Phase 19 development manager Hamidreza Masoudi as saying.
He said the 3,200 ton, 81 meter-high platform was installed to a 72 meter depth into the Persian Gulf waters.
The Phase 19 development is expected to have daily production of 50 million cubic meters of natural gas and 77,000 barrels of gas condensate.
The phase will also yield 1.1 million tons of liquid gas and one million tons of ethane gas per year which will be used as feedstock by petrochemical industries.
Masoudi said the phase includes four main and satellite platforms and aims to produce 56.5 mcm of gas per day.
The head of the Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Mohammadreza Zahiri said Iran has increased the production capacity of the South Pars gas field by 20 percent over the past two Persian calendar years (since March 2011), according to Press TV.
He said that the POGC has also increased the number of drilling rigs in the South Pars gas field from nine to 15 over the past year.
Zahiri went on to say that the POGC has particularly focused its development activities on phases 11, 12, 17, 18 and 19 of South Pars.
He pointed out that currently 18 types of drilling services are being provided by Iranian companies, which is eliminating the country's need for foreign firms.
Recently, Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ahmad Qalebani said the South Pars gas field will absorb as much as $30 billion this Iranian calendar year to March 2014.
He also said that by the end of this Iranian calendar year, the country's gas production capacity will rise by 100 mcm/d, mainly due to the production from phases 12, 15 and 16 of the massive offshore South Pars field.
The South Pars field was discovered in 1990 by NIOC. The field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are located in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, i.e. the North Dome, are located in Qatar's territorial waters.
The gas field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, about eight percent of the world's reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.
Iran, which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia with 34 trillion cubic meters, has been trying to enhance its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in the South Pars field.
Also, Iran has the world's fourth-largest reserves of recoverable oil, after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.