Azerbaijan, Baku, Jun.12/ Trend F.Milad/
The first phase of the gas refinery of the South Pars gas field, as the first totally Iranian-built refinery will come on stream by September this year, the Shana News Agency reported.
The facility will have the capacity to refine 12.5 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, the report added.
Construction of the gas refinery is 87 per cent complete. All the designing, engineering, and installation operations are completely done by Iranian experts.
Phases 15 and 16 will start early production by the sixth calendar month of Shahrivar, which begins on August 22, said the managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company.
Mousa Souri added that development of the two phases has progressed by 85 per cent. Meanwhile, development of the phases 17 and 18 is ahead of schedule, Mehr news agency reported.
Some 86 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas was produced in the South Pars gas field in the past calendar year, Souri said on April 4.
Shana news agency quoted Souri as saying that the output is valued at around $40 billion.
The gas field's output was increased by six million cubic meters per day in the past year compared to the year before, he added.
On March 14, The Mehr News Agency quoted deputy oil minister Javad Owji as saying that Iran will inaugurate six phases of the South Pars gas field by the end of the current calendar year (March 2013).
Once the phases come on stream, the gas field's output will be increased by 200 million cubic meters (mcm) per day to 500mcm, Owji added.
Meanwhile, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) managing director said in December 2011 that seven phases of the South Pars gas field will certainly come on stream and start early production in the current calendar year.
The phase 12 (equivalent to three phases), and the phases 15, 16, 17, and 18 development plans have progressed by around 60 percent, NIOC head Ahmad Qalebani told Mehr news agency.
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.