Iran plans to boost gas exports to 200mcm/d, said on August 1, 2016, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, emphasizing that exports via pipelines to neighboring countries and the completion of LNG projects are prioritized.
As TehranTimes reported, Zanganeh also mentioned that the capacity of gas refineries will reach one billion cubic meters (bcm) in the next Iranian calendar year (March 2017 - March 2018).
The iranian NIGC director for international affairs, Azizollah Ramezani, said on July 25, 2016, that the country’s annual gas exports volume is projected to hit 68 bcm by the next 5 years through transferring gas via pipeline, mostly to neighbors. According to officials, Iran has so far signed deals with Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, and Oman to export a total of 46 bcm of gas per year, but for the time being it only delivers to Turkey, while the country plans to export around 6 mcm per day of gas to Iraq in August.
Domestic consumption of liquefied gas decreasing
Meanwhile, Zanganeh referred to the downward trend of liquefied gas consumption as fuel in domestic power plants in recent years, clarifying that while liquefied gas constituted 18 percent of power plants’ total fuel in the Iranian calendar year 1394 (March 2015 - March 2016), the amount will be decreased to less than 10 % by the end of the current year (March 20, 2017).
300 mcm/d added to South Pars output
«As of taking office [in August 2013], the Rouhani administration has added mcm/d to the daily production of the South Pars gas field,» the oil minister boasted.
Zanganeh said that since becoming online, the phases 12, 15, 16, and 17 of the South Pars gas field have added 160 mcm to the country’s refined gas production capacity and 140 mcm to the dry gas production capacity.
«Phases 19, 18, 20 and 21 of South Pars gas field will become operational by the yearend,» he stressed.
According to him, the South Pars field’s daily gas production stood at 241 mcm in 2012, at 262 mcm in 2013, and at 356 mcm in 2015.
Over 3m tons of petrochemicals produced in 3 months
Elsewhere in his remarks, the minister said that in the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20 - June 20, 2016) more than 3.19 million tons of petrochemical products were produced by companies which were operating relying on gas as feedstock, while the figure stood at 2.8 million tons in the same period last year.
«For the time being, industries do not have any problems with the feedstock and petrochemical production is on the rise,» he said.
