Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 2/ Trend M. Moezzi
Iran's oil minister has ordered that the country's entire oil resources be dedicated to new phases of the joint South Pars gas field Mehr news agency reports a his deputy as saying.
All equipment and resources in the oil industry's stockpiles can be used to in the South Pars phases, said Ahamad Ghalebani, Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NICO). He added that despite the sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and its allies, the demand for Iran's oil is greater than its supply and no there have been no significant changes in Iran's oil industry because of new sanctions.
Oil, gas and petrochemical companies are to cooperate with supplying the South Pars project with whatever equipment it needs on orders by Rostam Ghasemi, Iran's Minister of Petroleum.
According to the NICO's timeline, seven South Pars phases are to start producing natural gas by next year (Iran's solar year ends in March).
The order by Mr. Ghasemi is designed to speed up work on the South Pars project and quickly provide any needed parts if Iran has them.
Iran and Qatar share the South Pars gas field. The Iranian share which is divided into 29 phases, accounts for about 14 trillion cubic metres of gas, or about eight per cent of the total world reserves and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.
Qatar launched developing South Pars ten years before Iran and has intensified developing the field, while Iran suffers international sanctions and technical-financial obstacles.