BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Iran needs $50 billion to maintain and increase gas extraction from offshore gas fields, Managing Director of Iran's Pars Oil & Gas Company (POGC) Mohammad Meshkinfam said, Trend reports citing the POGC’s website.
The director emphasized that certain plans have been made in two directions to maintain Iran's current production capacity and develop other gas fields to meet Iran's gas consumption over the next 20 years.
Meshkinfam added that Iran needs $30 billion to extract 75 percent of its stake in the Iran-Qatar joint South Pars gas field (called North Dome in Qatar) to increase extraction to 310 trillion cubic feet (about 8.78 trillion cubic meters) from this field. If this money is spent, it will be worth $500 billion.
“With the spending of about $20 billion on other offshore gas fields in Iran, Iran's gas extraction will increase by a total of 428 million cubic meters per day,” he said.
According to him, Iran's stake in the reserves of the South Pars gas field is about 420 trillion cubic feet (about 11.9 trillion cubic meters). So far, 15 percent of it has been extracted.
The director noted that in 2003, Iran began to extract 12 billion cubic meters of gas a year. At present, this figure has reached 220 billion cubic meters per year.
Meshkinfam stressed so far, Iran has produced a total of 1.86 trillion cubic meters of rich gas from the South Pars gas field. The value of this gas is estimated at $335 billion.
“Over the past seven years, more than $24 billion has been spent on the field, and gas extraction has increased daily by 418 million cubic meters,” he said.
The director also noted that Iran has spent $90 billion on the South Pars gas field, so far and currently extracts about 700 million cubic meters of gas from this field.
According to Meshkinfam, at present, 27 blocks of Iran operate in the South Pars gas field, and 2 blocks of the 11th phase are under development.
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 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).