Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 29/ Trend, F. Karimov/
Iran's Pars Oil and Gas Company has proved to be sluggish in tapping oil at the South Pars gas field, which is shared with Qatar, ISNA quoted an unnamed Iranian oil official as saying.
This is while Qatar is currently extracting oil from the joint gas field. The official has said that Iran just needs a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) to start tapping the oil layer.
The development of the oil field on the Iranian side is 97 percent complete.
Initially, the project contractor, PetroIran, was obliged to provide an FPSO, but Pars Oil and Gas Company decided to purchase the FPSO itself. However, it has taken no measure during the past year to buy an FPSO, which costs $200-300 million.
Managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company Roknoddin Javadi has said that no budget will be allocated to the oil field development plan in the next two years.
Iran has lost about 35,000 barrels per day worth of of crude oil because the oil field development plan has not been completed.
A floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the processing of hydrocarbons and for storing oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive hydrocarbons produced from nearby platforms or subsea templates, process them, and store oil until they can be offloaded onto a tanker or, less frequently, transported via pipeline.