Azerbaijan, Baku, Jun.24/ Trend F.Milad/
Iran extracts just around 35,000 barrels of crude oil from the South Pars gas field, which is associated with Qatar, while the Qatari side exploits as much as 450,000 barrels per day, the Fars News Agency reported.
The South Pars oil layer is estimated to hold some 1.6 billion barrels of crude.
The oil layer was explored in 1988 and the first well was drilled in 1998. After 6 years of holding tenders to find a foreign contractor, the development project was transferred to PetroIran Company.
Pars Oil and Gas Company's managing director Mousa Souri said that $800 million is required to develop the oil layer both in onshore and offshore sections.
On April 10, Souri said that production is expected to be online at the South Pars oil layer by March 2013. As much as 35,000 barrels of oil per day are expected during the first phase of project development, he added.
Souri said two drilling rigs were to start operating in shared portions of the field this year. He added that his company was looking to rent a floating production, storage and offloading unit for operations in Iranian waters.
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.