Iran has been successfully ramping up output from the South Pars gas field since the beginning of 2016. President Hassan Rohani said output from the field now stands at 575mn m³/d (20.3bn cfd), up 37% on January 2016 when it stood at 14.8bn cfd (MEES, 15 January 2016). Overall, Mr Rohani put total current gas output at 885mn m³/d (31.3bn cfd).

Development of the field is continuing apace. Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said this week that he expects South Pars output to reach 630mn m³/d (22.3bn cfd) by the end of the current Iranian year on 20 March 2018. If output from other fields stays flat, this would put total Iranian gas production at 940mn m³/d (33.2bn cfd). With Iran chasing total output of 1bn m³/d by then, sizeable output gains from elsewhere will be required too. (CONTINUED - 699 WORDS)