BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 14
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The drilling operations of a well in the 11th phase of the Iran-Qatar joint South Pars gas field (called North Dome in Qatar) have been launched for gas extraction for the first time, Deputy Director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Reza Dehghan said, Trend reports referring to the NIOC’s website.
The deputy director said that the gas extraction from the 11th phase for the first time is planned to be next Iranian year (from March 21, 2021, to March 21, 2022).
He added that so far, $15 million has been spent on the 11th phase.
Dehghan stressed that more than $70 million is planned to be spent on this phase by the end of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2021).
According to him, in general, Iran extracted daily 285 million cubic meters of gas from the South Pars gas field in 2013 (the current government in Iran has been in power since 2013). However, this figure amounts to more than 700 million cubic meters, at present.
France's Total and China's CNPCI companies have refused to operate in the 11th phase of the South Pars gas field as a result of US sanctions against Iran. According to this, the operations in this phase were fully entrusted to the Petropars Operation and Management Company (POMC).
The South Pars gas field (called North Dome in Qatar) is a joint gas field of Iran and Qatar. The proven reserves of the South Pars Gas Field are estimated at 51 trillion cubic meters of gas, of which 36 trillion are extractable. Iran has so far spent $80 billion on projects of the South Pars gas field.
Iran extracted 570 million cubic meters of gas per day from this field in the last Iranian year (from March 21, 2019, to March 20, 2020).