Iran to start tapping four South Pars gas field phases by next 12 months

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 30

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Iran will start producing natural gas from four phases of the South Pars gas field by the next 12 months, Iran's Oil Ministry reported on November 30.

The development plans of the four phases, i.e. the phases 15-18, started 77 months ago and are projected to come on stream before winter 2014. The four phases will produce 100 million cubic meters of natural gas totally.

Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that the development of joint oil and gas fields is a national task, IRIB reported on November 30.

We should place the priority on the development of joint oil and gas fields. Iran has a number of joint fields with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, Zanganeh said.

In the South Pars gas field, the priority will be attached to the phases 12, 15, 16, 17, and 18, he said, adding that these phases should come on stream within two years.

Expansion of petrochemical unit and refineries is the second most important task in order to enable us to reduce selling of crude oil, he said.

Increasing the volume of foreign investment in the Iranian oil and gas sector is the third priority. We are planning to absorb $70 billion in the next 7-8 years, he explained.

South Pars is a joint gas field of Iran and Qatar. The field on the Iranian side holds 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and has been divided into 29 phases, Phases 1 to 8 have been developed completely, Phases 9 and 10 has been operated, but not to full capacity and Phases 11 to 29 are under construction.

During the past three years from their inauguration, Phases 9 and 10, these phases have not been developed completely and their output in total is 42mcm/d, instead of the anticipated 50mcm/d.