Tehran, Iran, May 20
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran completed drilling operations at South Pars gas field's phases 17 and 18 in the first calendar month of the current Iranian year (March 21 - April 20).
National Iranian Drilling Company's deputy director Mohammadreza Takaidi said that in total 22 wells have been drilled in those phases, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported on May 20.
He went on to note that the company is ready to drill 44 wells at the field's phase 14.
The drilling operation in the mentioned phases started in the first calendar month of Iranian year of 1389 (April 2010).
The wells are 4,900 meters deep on average.
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.
Deputy Director of Iranian Offshore Engineering Construction Company Amir Saeed Najafi said on October 27, 2013 that the income from each standard phase of South Pars gas field will reach $8.5 billion.
"By inauguration of each phase Iran daily earns $11.5 million," the IRNA News Agency said, quoting Najafi.
Iran holds the world's third-largest proven oil reserves and the second-largest natural gas reserves.
The country's total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels, with about 140 billion barrels of extractable oil. Moreover, heavy and extra heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.