South Pars monthly exports up 49% yr/yr: Iranian official

TEHRAN,July 28(MNA) – The value of exports from Iran’s South Pars gas field rose 49 percent in the fourth Iranian calendar month of Tir (June 22-July 22) compared to the same month last year, an Iranian senior customs official said. Iran exported over $1.821 billion worth of petrochemical products from the gas field to 29 countries in the mentioned month, the IRNA news agency quoted Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (PSEEZ) Customs Office Director Khodadad Rahimi as saying on Sunday. More than 2.2 million tons of products, mainly heavy polyethylene, methanol, butane, diethylene glycol, propane, and gas condensate, were exported from PSEEZ in the calendar month of Tir, showing 45 percent rise compared to the same month in the previous yea, Rahimi said. China, Japan, the UAE, India, Turkey, Iraq, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Armenia, Russia, Mozambique, Egypt, Syria, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Qatar, Tanzania, Philippines, Ghana, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Georgia, South Korea and Mexico were the destinations for the exported goods, he added. Gas condensate accounted for 58 percent of the worth and 54 percent of the weight of total exports from the gas field, he added. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has said the South Pars gas field’s output will be increased by 100 million cubic meters per day in the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 21. The country will triple natural gas production at the gas field to one billion cubic meters per day in the next three years, Zanganeh said. Iran is currently producing 320 million cubic meters of gas per day at the South Pars gas field, he added. The South Pars/North Dome gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, with 3,700 square kilometers of it, which is known as the South Pars gas field, in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, i.e. the North Dome gas field, are in Qatar's territorial waters.