Baku, Azerbaijan, March 7
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend:
An Iranian private bank has reportedly confiscated the SADRA Company's only pipe laying barge, Iranian Fars News Agency reported on March 7.
The move was carried out because of SADRA Company's inability to pay its debts to the bank.
The pipe laying barge was supposed to be used in laying the pipelines of South Pars gas field's Phases 13, 22, 23 and 24.
The pipelines necessary for the mentioned phases have been purchased from India.
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 more than 18 billion barrels of LNG resources.
Iran has the world's fourth-largest proved national reserves of oil - most of it cheap to produce - and is home to the biggest proved reserves of natural gas, some 18 percent of the global total.
According to BP's latest yearly report, Iran's dried gas output is about 160 bcm, a little more than domestic consumption level.
Iran exported 7.5 bcm of gas to Turkey and imported 4.5 bcm of gas from Turkmenistan in 2012, according to BP's report.