According to statistics announced by Saeed Aghli, an official at the National Iranian Gas Company on Wednesday, April 4, the Ebrahim Raisi government has only compensated for the growth in gas consumption over the past two years through a reduction in gas injection into oil fields and a decline in exports, with no progress in increasing gas production.
Saeed Aghli, the dispatching manager of the National Iranian Gas Company, announced Iran’s natural gas consumption in the past year as 249 billion cubic meters, showing an increase of about three percent, or seven billion cubic meters, compared to 2022.
Statistics from the Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority show that Iran reduced its exports to this country by 48% in 2023, reaching 5.2 billion cubic meters.
Iran had also severely restricted gas exports to Iraq during the fall and winter of 2023.
Iran has also been importing limited amounts of gas (a total of about 3 billion cubic meters) from Turkmenistan since the fall of 2022, but the northern neighbor halted both gas sales to Iran and gas swap operations through Iran to the Republic of Azerbaijan since January 2023.
Thus, the Ebrahim Raisi government has compensated for a significant portion of the seven billion cubic meter increase in domestic gas consumption in 2023 through a significant reduction in exports and gas imports.
On the other hand, according to the Ministry of Oil statistics, Iran has been injecting an average of 37 million cubic meters of gas into oil fields daily over the past decade to maintain oil production levels, but Fars News Agency reported in June 2023 that this figure had decreased to 30 million cubic meters.
About 80% of Iran’s active oil fields are in the second half of their life, and the majority of the country’s oil production comes from fields that were launched before the 1979 revolution and require daily gas injection of 300 million cubic meters to maintain production.
The Ebrahim Raisi government only injects ten percent of this required amount into the fields to compensate for the gas shortage in other sectors, a situation that will eventually render a significant portion of the country’s oil field reserves unextractable.
Compensating for the country’s gas consumption growth through reduced exports and gas injection into oil fields comes at a time when recently, Iran’s regime Oil Minister Javad Owji claimed that the country’s average gas production growth in recent years has been 5.2% annually (more than 12 billion cubic meters per year).
This claim comes despite the fact that the country has faced increasing and severe gas shortages over the past two years, with the country’s gas deficit reaching 300 million cubic meters per day in the winter, a figure equivalent to Turkey’s total gas consumption during the cold season.
BP statistics also show that while Iran’s average annual gas production growth has been over five percent in the past decade, this figure dropped to less than one percent in 2022. International statistics on Iran’s gas production in 2023 have not yet been published.
Additionally, the country’s consumption of 249 billion cubic meters of gas last year (682 million cubic meters per day) is reported while Iran’s Oil Minister recently claimed in a gas-exporting countries’ conference in Algeria that the country’s current daily gas production is one billion and 70 million cubic meters.
Iran only succeeded in launching the incomplete Phase 11 of South Pars last year, but the country’s gas production did not change because instead of building and installing new production platforms, an old platform from Phase 12 of South Pars was transferred to Phase 11.
The reason for transferring this platform from Phase 12 to Phase 11 was also incorrect drilling in the wells of the third platform of Phase 12, as this platform produced more brackish water than gas.
About a decade ago, during the launch of Phase 12 of South Pars, it was supposed to produce 84 million cubic meters of gas daily, but due to drilling errors, it only produced 65 million cubic meters of gas from the beginning, and now it only produces 43 million cubic meters of gas.
Phase 11 of South Pars, which was launched last year, was also supposed to produce 56 million cubic meters of gas daily, but due to delays in completing the wells, it currently produces only one-fifth of this amount of gas.
