Shana -- The operator of the project for development of phases 20 and 21 of South Pars gas field Ali-Reza Ebadi says the project to extract gas from phase 21 of South Pars with 28 million cubic meters/day has started.

Ebadi told Shana that for the time being, gas extraction from South Pars gas field has increased and reached 515 million cubic meters a day.
Up to 28 million cubic meters/day sour gas, obtained from platform 21, is sent to refinery of phases 20 and 21 and after getting sweetened in the first and second stations of the refinery (each with the capacity to refine 14 million cubic meters), the collection is sent to the nationwide gas trunkline.

Up to January 21, 2017, the third and fourth sweetening stations of the phase will be ready to yield gas once operations for operation and exploitation of platform 20 are completed. Alike the platform for phase 21, the platform of phase 20 has the extraction capacity of 28 million cubic meters/day gas (equal to one billion cubic feet), which was fixed on its jacket on November 12. For the time being, the platform is getting operational.

Phases 20 and 21 of South Pars, have the capacity for extraction of 56 million cubic meters of sour gas a day, and once they are operational, after completion of the refining and sweetening operations, 50 million cubic meters of sweet gas will be injected to the nationwide network.

Among other goals behind implementation of the mega project are production and export of 77,000 barrels/day of gas condensates, one million tons/year of liquid gas, 400 tons/year of sulfur and one million tons/year of ethane as feedstock for the petrochemical units.

Up to January 21, 2017, the third and fourth sweetening stations of the phase will produce gas, once operations for operationing and exploitation of platform 20 are complete.

The phases 20 and 21 of South Pars are the last development projects underway in Pars Special Economic and Energy Zone (PSEEZ) and with completion of it, the file of development of phases of the region will come to a close.

For now, the capacity for extraction from South Pars gas field has reached more than 515 million cubic meters/day.

The goal behind development of phases 20 and 21 of South Pars is daily shipment of 50 million cubic meters of sweet gas to nationwide network to address domestic need, daily production of 75,000 barrels of gas condensates, 400 tons of sulfur, and annual production of 1.05 million tons of liquid gas as well as one million tons of ethane gas to secure feedstock for the petrochemical industries'.

South Pars gas field is one of the biggest independent gas sources worldwide, lying on Iran-Qatar joint maritime border in Persian Gulf. The field stretches on 9,700 square kilometers of land and Iran's share is 3,700 kms out of the total. On this basis, the field has 14 trillion cubic meters of gas along with 18 billion barrels of gas condensates, which constitute for more than eight percent of the world total gas reserves and close to half of Iran's gas reserves.

Qatar started gas extraction from South Pars in 1989 and Iran started the operation as of 2011 actually. As the current government took office in 2013, the policies for development of phases of South Pars and narrowing down the gap with Qatar were prioritized by the Ministry of Petroleum. Since 2014, phases 12, 15 and 16 and parts of phases 17 and 18 of South Pars were put into operation.

This year, there are plans to put into operation the remaining phases, namely phases 17, 18 and 19, which is equal to two standard phases, and phases 20 and 21 so as to dramatically narrow down the gap of gas exploitation with Qatar. In not far future, the production of the two countries will equal.