TEHRAN- A director in Pars Oil and Gas Company, who is in charge of developing Iran’s giant South Pars gas filed in the Persian Gulf, announced the beginning of the overhaul operation in 31 gas platforms of the field.

Hadi Fakhrizadeh, the director for the repairs operation and production management in POGC, said that this year, for the first time, overhaul operation is conducted in 31 platforms of the field.

He said that the operation is scheduled to be finished in 157 days.

He also pointed to the significant reduction in the overhaul period of South Pars gas platforms and added, “Now, the average daily overhaul of 31 gas platforms has been reduced to 7.5 working days, while previously, about one-third of these platforms were repaired annually in 15 days.”

As recently announced by the POGC managing director, the production goals set by the Oil Ministry for the giant gasfield in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) have been completely realized.

Mohammad Meshkinfam said that the South Pars gas field’s output even exceeded the ministry’s production targets by 15 million cubic meters per day during the previous year’s winter period.

“Fortunately, with the efforts of our colleagues in the operations and support department, about 15 million cubic meters per day of gas was produced in excess of the target output approved by the Oil Ministry during the last winter,” the official said on the sidelines of a meeting with the managers of POGC’s operations and support department.

Referring to the preparation of a 20-year outlook plan for South Pars’ development and maintenance, he added: "it is necessary to form a working group to prepare and compile a guiding document for maintaining sustainable gas production from South Pars in short-term and long-term periods and in order to identify problems and to make plans for eliminating bottlenecks.”

The POGC head stated that about 70 percent of the country's gas consumption is supplied from the South Pars gas field, adding that the existing problems, including the outbreak of the coronavirus, management changes, bottlenecks, and lack of financial resources should not hinder production in this giant field.

Meshkinfam also referred to the South Pars gas field’s maintenance issues and noted that POGC was able to perform well in the field of production maintenance last year, and the company’s plans in this regard are expected to be pursued more seriously in the current year.

The huge South Pars field, which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, called North Dome, are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.

The field is estimated to contain a significant amount of natural gas, accounting for about eight percent of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.

MA/MA