Baku, Azerbaijan, June 7
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran will inaugurate the first unit of a refinery at the South Pars gas field's phases 17 and 18 by the end of the first half of the current year.
The construction of the refinery has progressed by 90 percent and it will come on stream at the end of the sixth month of Shahrivar, Iran's IRNA news agency said on June 7.
The Iranian calendar year starts on March 20.
South Pars is part of a wider gas field that is shared with Qatar.
The larger field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran's territorial waters (South Pars) in the Persian Gulf.
The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, referred to as the North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.
The Iranian gas field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, about eight percent of the world's reserves, and over 18 billion barrels of LNG resources.
The Phases 17 and 18 are projected to produce 50 million cubic meters of natural gas, 80,000 barrels of condensates, and 400 tons of sulfur per day.
On March 24, deputy director of National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) Mohammad Reza Takaydi said Iran finished drilling eleven wells in the giant South Pars gas field's Phase 17.
NIDC was in charge of drilling of 22 wells in Phases 17 and 18. The company finished drilling a well in Phase 18 in February.