Page 62 - IRANRptDec21

9.2 Major corporate news 9.2.1 Oil & gas corporate news
POGC kicks off South Pars drilling
NIOC to launch final South Pars refinery in January
Iran’s state-owned Pars Oil and Gas Co. (POGC) said this week that it has started a new drilling campaign as it seeks to add reserves at the supergiant offshore South Pars gas field.
In an announcement carried by POGC’s website, the company’s head of oil and gas engineering, Ali Akbar Majed, said that it has started drilling an appraisal well in the northern area of the field. “This well is aimed at determining the extent of expansion of South Pars gas field in the north side of the field and evaluating the potential of uncharted areas of this section for development,” he said.
The drilling work is being carried out by Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Co. (IOEC) under POGC’s supervision.
POGC, which is a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC), holds ultimate responsibility for the development of South Pars, with fellow NIOC affiliate Petropars carrying out jobs on the surface and subsurface. IOEC is also a subsidiary of NIOC.
Majed said that identifying and exploring undeveloped parts of the field are among POGC’s top priorities under its programme to maintain production levels at South Pars, and it intends to drill another three appraisal wells in the northern part of the field.
The announcement follows comments by Majed in August suggesting that a drilling campaign would be forthcoming. “Due to the natural decrease in the pressure of the South Pars field gas reservoir following its production over the last 20 years, the production rate of this reservoir will inevitably decline even more in the coming years, so the company has put exploring the undeveloped parts of the field on the agenda by drilling new wells,” he said at the time.
The overall South Pars development includes 37 platforms across the field’s 24 phases to produce 700mn cubic metres per day at present out of Iran’s 1bn cubic metre per day total. Tehran is aiming to increase output from South Pars to 1 bcm per day as quickly as possible but requires significant investment to maintain and add to production. An additional 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude are produced from the field’s oil layer.
Meanwhile, in late October, POGC said it had completed its annual maintenance across the field’s 24 phases to ensure stable production during winter months.
Iran is home to around 34 trillion cubic metres of proven natural gas reserves, with the supergiant South Pars accounting for around 14 tcm as well as 18bn barrels of gas condensates. The Islamic Republic holds a 3,700-square km portion of the 9,700-square km deposit that is shared with Qatar, where it is known as the North Dome field. Around 80% of the field’s initial gas reserves are believed to remain in place.
The National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) said this week that it expects to bring the first gas sweetening train of the South Pars development project’s final refining phase into operation in January 2022.
The company’s deputy director for production affairs, Farrokh Alikhani, said: “Due to rising gas consumption in the country and in order to prevent gas shortage in winter, the launch of Phase 14 refinery is very important.” Construction at the facility is now more than 90% finished, with steam boilers and gas condensate storage facilities already operational. Other units including
62 IRAN Country Report December 2021 www.intellinews.com