Azerbaijan, Baku, 12 May/Trend/
Iran will invest $30 billion to increase oil and natural gas production this solar year (from March 20, 2010 to March 21, 2011), Fars News Agency reported quoting the deputy oil ministry as saying.
Iran plans to attract $13 to $15 billion investment to develop the remaining phases of South Pars gas field, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ahmad Qalebani said.
Developing the South Pars gas field is priority of NIOC, while the company inserted $4 billion from its fund to improve South Pars joint field production, he added.
According to the Fifth Socioeconomic Development Plan (2010-2015), Iran needs $150 billion investment to develop oil and gas fields therefore $30 billion have been planned to increase oil and gas production in this solar year.
Foreign companies such as Total and Stat Oil have left major oil and gas project due to international sanctions against Iran.
However, Iran seeks to attract domestic investors, the country already issued oil stock exchange in 2009 worth 1.5 billion euro.
South Pars gas field, which is located in the Persian Gulf, is the world's largest gas field shared by Iran and Qatar.
According to the International Energy Agency, the field holds an estimated 50.97 trillion cubic meters (1800 trillion cubic feet) of in-situ gas and some 50 billion barrels of condensates.
Iran ranks third in the world in oil reserves and second in gas reserves.