Azerbaijan, Baku, March 18/ Trend M. Moezzi
Iran plans to commission five offshore phases of its joint South Pars gas and oil field for the next six months, Fars news agency reported.
The work on South Pars' biggest phase 12, and phases 15, 16, 17 and 18 is being held well and they will start operating in the coming months.
South Pars Gas Company's Managing Director, Mousa Souri, said that Iran is making good progress on exploiting the South Pars field. Mr Souri denied the reports that Qatar, which shares the field with Iran, was extracting several times more gas and oil from the field than Iran. Qatar extracts less from the field than Iran, Mr. Souri said.
Iran produces 293 million cubic meters of gas a day from South Pars, breaking its own production record. With three new refineries to be commissioned in the new year (Iran's solar year ends on March 20), Iran's production will significantly increase.
The South Pars field stretches over 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 of which belong to Iran. It holds 50 percent of Iran's natural gas reserves and eight percent of the world's ones.