Page 11 - MEOG Week 35 2021

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

POGC to begin further

South Pars appraisal work

IRAN STATE-OWNED Pars Oil and Gas Co. (POGC) the supergiant South Pars accounting for around
announced this week that it is preparing to kick 14 tcm as well as 18bn barrels of gas condensates.
off a drilling campaign to appraise possible new The Islamic Republic holds a 3,700-square
reserves in the northern area of the offshore km portion of the 9,700-square km deposit that
South Pars gas field. is shared with Qatar, where it is known as the
In a statement on its website, head of the North Dome field. Around 80% of the field’s ini-
company’s oil and gas engineering department tial gas reserves are believed to remain in place.
Ali Akbar Majed said that POGC had carried Production began at Phases 2 and 3 in 2002,
out preparatory work for the drilling of a new with nine phases entering production during the
appraisal well by the end of September as it seeks presidency of Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani and his
to maintain production from the asset, which Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh oversaw the com-
comprises part of the world’s largest gas deposit. missioning of 26 offshore platforms, 228 wells,
The news follows the inauguration last month 2,160 km of sea pipelines and 30 refining trains,
of the remaining offshore projects of the over- which saw production expand by 250% from 280
all South Pars development, which includes 37 mcm per day in 2013.
platforms across the field’s 24 phases, to produce Future production levels will be dictated by
700mn cubic metres per day at present of Iran’s the extent to which Iran is able to counter pres-
1bn cubic metre per day total. sure decline, and there are plans to install 20
Tehran is aiming to increase output from heavy compression platforms to maintain output
South Pars to 1 bcm per day as quickly as possi- levels at a cost of around $1bn each.
ble but requires significant investment to main- Work is ongoing at the remaining Phase 11,
tain and add to production. which has been perhaps the highest profile of all
Majed said: “Due to the natural decrease in Iranian oil and gas projects following the signing
the pressure of the South Pars field gas reservoir of an integrated petroleum contract (IPC) with
following its production over the last 20 years, French super-major Total and China National
the production rate of this reservoir will inevi- Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) in 2017 targeting pro-
tably decline even more in the coming years, so duction of 20.8 bcm per year.
the company has put exploring the undeveloped The Chinese firm became the lead investor in
parts of the field on the agenda by drilling new SP11 after Total withdrew in August 2018 citing
wells.” the threat of incurring US sanctions should it go
He added that an appraisal well was drilled ahead with plans. The French firm had planned
on the eastern sector of the field during the last to invest an initial $1bn, focusing on a section of
Iranian calendar year and the Ministry of Petro- the field near the South Pars Oil Layer, adjacent
leum expects to receive the results soon. to areas of the field under Qatar’s control.
Meanwhile, Majed was quoted by Bushehr The company’s 50.1% stake was handed over
Centre Radio and Television News Agency as to CNPC, giving it 80.1%, with Petropars retain-
saying: “K-layer … operations in 13 wells, exten- ing the remaining 19.9%. Petropars was left as
sive acid work in 18 production wells and repair the only remaining partner in the $4.879bn pro-
of well No. 2 of SPD5 platform were carried out ject when CNPC pulled out in 2019.™
during the past years, which resulted in a stable
period.”
He added that maintenance work had been
effected at well 8 at the SPD18B platform to
improve safety and productivity. Work has also
begun to repair well 1 at phase 21 following
unexpected pressure readings. Majed said that
the maintenance would be completed by the end
of November.
POGC, a subsidiary of the National Iranian
Oil Co. (NIOC), holds ultimate responsibility
for the projects, with fellow NIOC subsidiary
Petropars carrying out jobs on the surface and
subsurface.
The country is home to around 34 trillion
cubic metres of proven natural gas reserves, with

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