Pars Today

In this edition of our weekly series, we’re going to discuss the Islamic Republic of Iran’s gas condensates.

As an introduction, it should be noted that the production of Iran’s gas condensates is approximately 630 thousand barrels per day and it is predicted to increase to one million and 300 thousand barrels per day in 2020.

One of the valuable fuel sources is gas condensates.

Natural Gas Condensates, also known as NGCs, are complex combinations of petroleum hydrocarbons. They are primarily separated from raw natural gas.

Gas condensate is obtained during exploitation process of natural gas reserves and so is the marginal product of natural gas.

Gas condensates are the hydrocarbons that are in the form of gas in the temperature of gas reserves, however they turn into liquid form after they are put in the normal temperature of earth. While this gas product is categorized in the hydrocarbon group, it is different with oil or LPG, LNG or liquid gas and other crude products of oil and natural gas including mazut and petrol.

The gas which is extracted from gas reserves has a dramatic volume of gas condensate especially when the amount of gas extraction is high.

The gas condensate is also called condensate, natural gas condensate, or sometimes natural gasoline because it contains hydrocarbons within the gasoline boiling range.

Gas condensate mainly consists of pentane and heavier hydrocarbons. This product has low sulfur and is devoid of any metal compounds. Gas condensate is obtained after separating methane and ethane. NGCs may be transported from a petroleum-sector facility to other industrial facilities for example, for use as raw material or a blending component, but they are not expected to be available to the public.

Gas condensate has diverse uses. These compounds can be used as feed for special refineries of condensate or petrochemicals. Natural gas condensates are used to dilute heavy crude oil or bitumen. Gas condensates are used as industrial raw materials or as blending constituents in the production of gasoline.

Natural gas condensates are used as a fluid component in oil and gas well drilling operations.

In 2013, the total amount of condensates produced in the world was over seven million barrels per day. It is expected that this figure will reach to more than nine million barrels per day in 2020. Two regions of West Asia and North America are holding the major amounts of gas condensates in the world.

The South Pars/North Dome field is a natural-gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is by far the world's largest natural gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar. According to the International Energy Agency, this field holds an estimated 51 trillion cubic meters of in-situ natural gas and 7.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas condensates. This gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers.

Iranian section of the South Pars/North Dome field is considered the most significant source of energy in Iran. The gas reserves of this huge gas field comprise about 8% of the total gas reserves of the world while the Iranian part of the field comprises almost a half of the domestic gas reserves of Iran. This huge gas field measures 9,700 square km in area while the Iranian section measures 3,700 square km in area. Iran's section is estimated to hold some 14 trillion cubic meters of gas plus 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The Islamic Republic of Iran’s major customers for gas condensates are Japan, South Korea and UAE.

AE/RM/ME