TEHRAN - Iran has restored around half of the natural gas production capacity damaged at the South Pars field following US-Israeli attacks, with officials saying reconstruction efforts are progressing ahead of the winter season.
Deputy Oil Minister for Planning Ahmad Zera’atkar said on Wednesday that about 50 percent of the damaged capacity returned to service by the end of the Iranian month of Shahrivar, which ended on September 22.
He said some production units have been brought back online earlier than initially scheduled.
Zera’atkar further noted that domestic financing has also been mobilized for the reconstruction effort, with four projects launched as part of a major financing program.
He added that the government’s planned recovery targets are being met and that the remaining measures were expected to be completed before the start of winter.
Zera’atkar also urged consumers to conserve energy, saying their cooperation would help the country manage the remaining challenges and support efforts to restore production capacity.
South Pars, located in Iran’s Persian Gulf waters and sharing the giant gas reservoir with Qatar’s North Field, is central to Iran’s domestic energy supply and petrochemical industry.
The restoration comes as Iran prepares for higher energy demand during the colder months.
Iranian Petroleum Minister Mohsen Paknejad said the country had lost about 230 million cubic meters per day of gas processing capacity since four gas-processing plants were taken offline during the US-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic, which began in late February.
According to Paknejad, efforts to make use of spare capacity at other processing facilities have recovered nearly 100 million cubic meters of the lost output.
However, more than 120 million cubic meters per day of the shortfall remains, adding to the country’s existing gas supply imbalance.
Paknejad also said the Petroleum Ministry is working with the Parliament’s Energy Committee on plans to manage gas supplies, particularly deliveries to power plants, which depend heavily on natural gas to generate electricity.
The government is also increasing reserves of liquid fuels as a backup for power plants and industries during periods of peak winter demand.
Paknejad further said that stocks of fuel oil and diesel are being increased so that reduced gas supplies could be compensated for with liquid fuels when household and commercial consumption rises sharply.
The latest recovery is part of a broader effort to restore South Pars after the strategic energy hub came under repeated terrorist attacks during the U.S.-Israeli wars on Iran.