Page 72 - IRANRptAug22

The development plan for the field involves the construction of the four projected gas refineries in the Garzeh region in the southern Hormozgan Province, rather than on the island itself – which is a key tourist destination – and will be linked to the 14 onshore wells via a 19-km pipeline.
Pars pressure
Later the same day, Khojastehmehr said that Gazprom’s assistance would help bring the final development phase of South Pars on-stream during the winter, to boost supplies when demand is at its peak.
He said that NIOC had successfully negotiated with Gazprom for the Russian firm to install pressure booster platforms at South Pars phase 11 (SP11). “Exploration and concept studies on this project have ended and foundational studies are underway ... we hope gas production from Phase 11 will materialise in winter this year,” he told the semi-official ILNA news agency. Local media outlets said that the deal with Gazprom will see the Russian firm carry out $15bn worth of construction on pressure boosting platforms, though this figure appears to loosely relate to high-case scenarios for full-field pressure installations.
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 overall South Pars development includes 37 platforms across the field’s 24 phases to produce 700-750mn cubic metres per day at present of Iran’s roughly 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.
SP11 is targeting the production of 2bn cubic feet (57 mcm) per day of gas. Petropars was left as the only remaining partner in the $4.879bn project, for which stakes of 50.1% and 30% were awarded to French super-major Total and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), respectively in July 2017. The award was made for an Integrated Petroleum Contract (IPC) model, setting SP11’s production target at the time to 20.8bn cubic metres per year. Khojastehmehr added that SP11 holds some of the field’s largest and most complex reservoirs.
In January, Petropars CEO Seyed Shamsedin Mousavi said that commissioning would begin on the first production platform at SP11 – SP11B – by the end of September.
Four years removed from the collapse of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a lack of alternatives for either Russia or Iran has seen Gazprom’s and NIOC’s paths cross for a marriage of convenience. Together though, despite the Russian firm’s output falling by around 31% on the back of sanctions, will account for a just under 2bcm per day or around 18% of global supply. That alone is a powerful proposition.
72 IRAN Country Report August 2022 www.intellinews.com