Azerbaijan, Baku, Apr. 9/ Trend F.Milad/
Iran will extract natural gas from the South Pars gas field's K1 layer in the current calendar year, which began on March 20, the Pars Oil and Gas Company's managing director said.
Mousa Souri told IRNA news agency that the project will increase output at the phases 2-10 of the South Pars by 15-20 percent.
Some $182 million has been allocated to the project, he said, adding that the South Pars gas field is constituted of four layers, namely K1 to K4. Currently, the South Pars output stands at around 290 million cubic meters per day.
Previously, he said that the South Pars gas field's daily production hit the record high of 290 million cubic meters in the past year. Once all the 18 phases of the gas field come on stream, the country's gross domestic production will increase by 18 percent, he added.
Iran sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia and is trying to grow its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in its South Pars gas field.
The South Pars gas field is shared by Iran and Qatar. The Iranian share, which is divided into 29 phases, has about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight percent of the total world reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.