August 19, 2023 [S&P Global] Iran has started gas production from phase 11 at the South Pars gas field, which it shares with Qatar, oil ministry news service Shana reported Aug 15.

“At the moment four wells in phase 11 are producing,” Khojastehmehr said.

Current production levels were not specified but Iranian officials said previously this phase would start at around 10 million cu m/d in the early production stages. The start of production will be officially inaugurated soon, Khojastehmehr said.

Phase 11 will yield 56 million cu m/d from 24 wells once its development is completed.

This is the last phase of the massive South Pars gas field, development of which has been delayed by nearly 20 years, mainly due to international sanctions against Iran’s disputed nuclear program. This prevented IOCs, including Chinese and French companies, from seeing through multibillion dollar contracts and providing Iran with the advanced technology needed to address the challenge of low pressure at the field.

“A $20 billion credit has been allocated to boost pressure in South Pars gas field,” said Khojastehmehr, who is also managing director of the National Iranian Oil Co.

Khojastehmehr last year said local companies were carrying out studies and basic engineering on a pressure-boosting technology.

In a separate development, Shana reported Aug. 15 that Iran and Armenia have extended until 2030 a gas-electricity barter deal and increased the gas volumes involved. The contract was signed in Yerevan on Aug. 10. The Iran-Armenia gas export pipeline has a capacity of more than 1 Bcm/year but only around a third of the capacity was being used.

The report did not provide more details.

Iran currently produces 1 Bcm/d of natural gas and plans to raise production capacity by 500 million cu m/d by 2029.

In the last Iranian year (March 2022-March 2023), Iran’s gas consumption stood at around 630 million cu m/d. Iran exports gas to Turkey and Iraq, and has swap deals with Turkmenistan and Armenia.

On Aug. 7, managing director of National Iranian Gas Co., Majid Chegeni, said the country has increased gas exports by more than 16% in the last Iranian year that ended March 20.

Talks continue for extension of contracts with Turkey and Iraq, Chegeni said.

“We have also had talks with Turkmenistan to sign a gas contract to import gas from this country. Iran’s gas debt to Turkmenistan has been completely settled. The talks are being held for both short-and long-term imports,” Chegeni said, according to Shana.

“A trial imports of 10 million cu m of gas from Turkmenistan has been carried out successfully. In the next step and simultaneously when development projects of Turkmenistan’s gas fields go on stream, we intend to increase the volume of imports,” Chegeni said.

“Gas swap with Turkmenistan has reached 8 million cu m/d,” he said.

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