Page 14 - MEOG Week 44 2021

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

Iran completes South

Pars’ annual maintenance

IRAN STATE-OWNED Pars Oil and Gas Co. (POGC) the remaining offshore projects of the overall
announced this week that it has completed the South Pars development which includes 37 plat-
overhaul of all 36 platforms across the 24 phases forms across the field’s 24 phases to produce 700
of the offshore South Pars gas field. mcm per day at present of Iran’s 1bn cubic metre
The company’s deputy director for repair per day total. Tehran is aiming to increase output
operations, Mehdi Tayebi, said that the mainte- from South Pars to 1 bcm per day as quickly as
nance work had been completed in 136 days with possible but requires significant investment to
more than 100,000 hours of work carried out maintain and add to production.
without any accident and the average time spent Majed said: “Due to the natural decrease in
repairing each platform had been reduced from the pressure of the South Pars field gas reservoir
nine days last year to less than eight and a half. following its production over the last 20 years,
“By reducing the average number of days of the production rate of this reservoir will inevi-
major repairs to 8.3 days, on average each plat- tably decline even more in the coming years, so
form will produce about 16.5mn cubic metres the company has put exploring the undeveloped
per day of gas and 11,000 barrels per day of gas parts of the field on the agenda by drilling new
condensate more than the previous year.” wells.”
Iran carries out South Pars overhaul work He added that an appraisal well was drilled
during the first half of the Iranian calendar year on the eastern sector of the field during the last
owing to the reduction in gas demand between Iranian calendar year and the Ministry of Petro-
March and October, and to ensure stable pro- leum expects to receive the results soon.
duction during the winter months. POGC, a subsidiary of the National Iranian
Maintenance work mainly covers inspection, Oil Co. (NIOC), holds ultimate responsibility
calibration of safety valves, repairs of control sys- for the projects, with fellow NIOC subsidiary
tems and other repairs and replacements. Petropars carrying out jobs on the surface and
In late August, POGC said it was preparing subsurface.
to kick of a drilling campaign to appraise pos- The country is home to around 34 trillion
sible new reserves in the northern area of South cubic metres of proven natural gas reserves, with
Pars. In a statement on its website, the head of the the supergiant South Pars accounting for around
company’s oil and gas engineering department 14 tcm as well as 18bn barrels of gas condensates.
Ali Akbar Majed said that POGC had carried The Islamic Republic holds a 3,700-square
out preparatory work for the drilling of a new km portion of the 9,700-square km deposit that
appraisal well by the end of September as it seeks is shared with Qatar, where it is known as the
to maintain production from the asset which North Dome field.
comprises part of the world’s largest gas deposit. Around 80% of the field’s initial gas reserves
The news follows the inauguration in July of are believed to remain in place.™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 44 03•November•2021