South Pars pressure-boosting plan to raise Iran’s gas recovery by 20%
Iran’s project to boost pressure at the South Pars gas field is expected to push up the field’s gas recovery rate by around 20%, an energy official said in remarks carried by IRNA on Monday.
Mohammad-Mehdi Tavassolipour, project manager for South Pars pressure-boosting development, said the plan would make an additional 2.38 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of gas and 2 billion barrels of gas condensate recoverable from the field.
In March, the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) signed a $17-billion contract with four local firms — Petropars, OIEC Group, MAPNA, and the Khatam al-Anbia Construction Headquarters — to carry out the pressure-boosting project at South Pars, the world’s largest gas field that Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf.
Under the agreement, the field was divided into seven operational hubs, each equipped with six offshore platforms – two for power generation, two for accommodation, and two compressor platforms for gas pressurization.
The hubs were assigned to the companies for pressure enhancement in their designated sections.
Tavassolipour, who represents the state-owned Pars Oil and Gas Co., responsible for coordinating the four contractors involved, said the scheme was designed to maintain production at the field, prevent gas migration towards Qatar, balance domestic supply, and ensure Iran’s energy security.
He said a total of 2,820 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, worth $520 billion, had been extracted from South Pars by March 2025, which began pumping in 2002. “This is while the total development cost has been estimated at $84 billion.”
The official noted that the field had now entered a natural pressure decline phase, which, without intervention, would lead to a gradual drop in output.
Iran’s current daily gas extraction – 1.1 bcm – from South Pars exceeds that of Qatar, according to Tavassolipour.
However, the Oil Ministry estimates that South Pars could see a daily production drop of 28 million cubic meters in two years, which would surge to 42 mcm per day in five years without the pressure-boosting project.
The South Pars field is estimated to contain 51 tcm of natural gas and over 50 billion barrels of condensate.
Iran’s share covers about 37% of the total reservoir, containing 14 tcm of gas in place, of which 10 tcm are considered recoverable.