Azerbaijan, Baku, Mar. 17/ Trend F.Milad/
Three new refineries will become operational in the South Pars gas field, which will increase the field's output to 17 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year by 2015, the South Pars Gas Complex's managing director stated.
Ali-Akbar Shabanpour told Fars news agency that the daily output of the South Pars gas field will reach 480 million cubic meters (mcm) from 290 mcm.
Gas condensates and LPG outputs will also rise to 680,000 barrels and 21,000 tons per day, respectively, he said.
Iran will inaugurate six phases of the South Pars gas field by the end of the next calendar year (March 2013), Mehr news agency quoted deputy oil minister Javad Owji as saying.
Once the phases come on stream, the gas field's output will be increased by 200 million cubic meters (mcm) per day to 500mcm, Owji added.
The South Pars gas field is shared by Iran and Qatar. The Iranian share, which is divided into 29 phases, has about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight percent of the total world reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.
Iran sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia.