Overview of Iran's major gas fields and oil infrastructure
Donald Trump, President of the United States, said on Thursday that America has an
"armada"
After a wave anti-government protests, the US is heading to Iran and renewing warnings against Tehran restarting its nuclear programme or killing protesters.
Tehran accuses Washington of fomenting turmoil.
A major increase in prices could endanger key energy infrastructure, and add uncertainty to the oil and gas market.
Here are some facts about Iran's energy sector, its exports and the impact of?Western sanctions.
The World's Largest Gas Reserve
Iran produces natural gases from the South Pars offshore gas field. This gas field makes up about a third the world's biggest reservoir of natural natural gas.
Iran shares the reservoir field with Qatar, a major exporter. Qatar calls their field North Dome.
Due to technical and sanctions constraints, most of the gas produced by Tehran from South Pars will be consumed in Iran. According to the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, Iran's total production of gas will total 276 billion cubic metres in 2024. 94% of this gas will be consumed within Iran.
In June of last year, Israelis attacked four units in Phase 14 of South Pars. These were located around 200 km from Qatari?gas installations. Many of these are joint ventures between ExxonMobil of the U.S. and ConocoPhillips.
Qatar has been exporting LNG for more than 30 years and made hundreds of millions of dollars.
There are 1,800 trillion cubic meters of gas in the reservoir, enough to meet all world needs for 13years.
OIL PRODUCTION & INFRASTRUCTURE
Iran is the third largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. It produces about 3.3 millions barrels of crude oil per day, plus about 1.3 million barrels of condensate, and other liquids. This totals to about 4.5% of the global supply.
According to FGE, Iran's domestic refineries are capable of producing 2.6 million barrels per day.
According to Kpler's estimates, Iran will export nearly 820,000 barrels per day of oil products in 2025. This is slightly less than the levels achieved in 2024. Iran's hydrocarbon facilities are concentrated in the southwestern provinces, primarily Khuzestan and Bushehr.
It exports 90% of crude oil via Kharg Island for shipping through the narrow Strait of Hormuz. Analysts claim that Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries could compensate for a decrease in Iranian oil supply by pumping more despite the fact that spare capacity is shrinking because of increased output.
SANCTIONS EXERCISED AND EVADED
According to OPEC, Iran's oil output peaked in 1974 at 6 million bpd - more than 10% of the world's total at that time.
The first wave of sanctions was imposed by the U.S. in 1979. Since then, the European Union has also imposed several waves. The U.S. tightened its sanctions in 2018 following?Trump's exit from a nuclear agreement during his first term.
Analysts said that enforcement was lax and Iran - which is exempt from OPEC+ production restrictions - was able to evade sanctions.
Who buys Iran's oil?
Since years, Iran has avoided sanctions by transferring tankers from one ship to another and hiding their locations from satellites.
The Chinese demand will drive its crude exports to nearly 1.7m bpd in 2025.
Some of the Chinese private refiners have recently been placed on U.S. Treasury's sanctions list.
Despite China's claim that it does not recognize sanctions against its trading partners, China's purchases have decreased.
Iran has also increased its stockpiles in order to defend itself from possible U.S. attacks.
Oil on the Water
Data from Kpler & Vortexa this month showed that the output of about 50 days is equivalent.
(source: Reuters)