Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.23/ Trend R.Zamanov
Once the remaining 14 phases of the South Pars gas field come on stream Iran's oil revenues would be raised by $100 million per day, Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Roknoddin Javadi said on Wednesday.
"So time is a crucial issue in development of the remaining phases of the giant gas field," the IRNA News Agency quoted Javadi as saying.
"Iran needs to invest $20 to $25 million in the project. So if we want all the phases to come on stream in the next 24 months, some one million dollars should be invested in the development project each month," he explained.
"Each phase's revenues equal $2.5 billion annually," Javadi added.
He went on to note that the country loses large amounts of money with each daily delay in the development project of the South Pars gas field's remaining phases.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh previously said the oil ministry's priority in developing South Pars gas field's phases is the old ones.
The country holds the world's third-largest proven oil reserves and the second-largest natural gas reserves.
The country's total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels, with about 140 billion barrels of extractable oil. Moreover, heavy and extra heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.