IRAN IS PLANNING to construct a sixth cross-country gas pipeline to transfer sweetened gas from phases 9 and 10 of the giant South Pars gasfield. “The 492-km transmission pipeline has the capacity to carry 110mm cum/d of sweet gas,” Azizollah Ramezani, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Co (NIGC) said recently.
The pipeline will feed the southern Iranian provinces of Khuzestan and Bushehr; it also raises the prospect of Iran beginning gas exports to Kuwait. Iran has set ambitious objectives for its gas sector, and has managed to raise its 2007 production to 169bn cum, and the country plans to increase its output approximately five fold to 617.5bn cum/yr by 2020. The target, if achieved, would allow the country to become the third largest gas producer in the world.