Azerbaijan, Baku, May.14/ Trend F.Karimov/
Iran installed the largest platform of the South Pars gas field during phase 19, Shana quoted phase 19 development manager Hamidreza Masoudi as saying.
"The 3200-ton, 81-metre high platform was installed to a 72 metre depth into the water," he noted.
The main goal of the gas field phase 19 development is a daily production of 50 million cubic meters of natural gas, 77,000 barrels of gas condensate and 400 tons of sulphur.
The phase will also yield 1.1 million tons of liquid gas and one million tons of ethane gas per year which will be used as feedstock by petrochemical industries.
The head of the Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) says Iran has increased the production capacity of the South Pars gas field by 20 per cent over the past two Persian calendar years (since March 2011), according to Press TV.
Mohammadreza Zahiri said that the POGC has also increased the number of drilling rigs in the South Pars gas field from nine to 15 over the past year.
Zahiri went on to say that the POGC has particularly focused its development activities on phases 11, 12, 17, 18 and 19 of South Pars.
The Iranian official pointed out that currently '18 types of drilling services' are being provided by Iranian companies eliminating the country's need for foreign firms.
Covering an area of 3,700 square kilometres, Iran's South Pars which is part of a larger gas field shared with Qatar, is divided into 24 phases and holds about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight per cent of the total world reserves and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.
Iran which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, is making efforts to up its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in the South Pars gas field.