Azerbaijan, Baku, July.30/ Trend R.Zamanov
Announcing a 35-month deadline to develop some of South Pars gas field's phases was unrealistic and political, the managing director of Iran Marine Industrial Company (SADRA) said on Tuesday.
"None of the phases have started production yet," the ISNA News Agency quoted Mehdi Etesami as saying.
"The development projects of phase 15 - 18 started in 1385 (2006) when there were no sanctions, yet none of the phases are complete. So announcing a 35-month deadline for the phases which had their development projects started amid sanctions in 1389 (2010) is totally unrealistic," he said.
"If there were no financial problems, the development projects would be completed in time, but currently we can't buy all the required equipment," he added.
Etesami went on to note that SADRA Company has bought some key offshore equipment but they are stuck in Customs Administration due to lack of financial sources.
"Considering the current situation we can't give any specific date for the completion of the projects," he added.
According to Etesami, the government owes some $50 million to SADRA Company.
"Currently the contractor is using the funds of other phases for developing the phases 12, 15 and 16 since they are more than 90 percent complete," he added.
He also said that SADRA Company has been blacklisted since 2010 and cannot directly buy equipment but it has formed some groups in Europe and China to negotiate and buy the required equipment.
South Pars is part of a wider gas field that is shared with Qatar . The larger field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran 's territorial waters (South Pars) in the Persian Gulf .
Announcing a 35-month deadline to develop some of South Pars gas field's phases was unrealistic and political, the managing director of Iran Marine Industrial Company (SADRA) said on Tuesday.
"None of the phases have started production yet," the ISNA News Agency quoted Mehdi Etesami as saying.
"The development projects of phase 15 - 18 started in 1385 (2006) when there were no sanctions, yet none of the phases are complete. So announcing a 35-month deadline for the phases which had their development projects started amid sanctions in 1389 (2010) is totally unrealistic," he said.
"If there were no financial problems, the development projects would be completed in time, but currently we can't buy all the required equipment," he added.
Etesami went on to note that SADRA Company has bought some key offshore equipment but they are stuck in Customs Administration due to lack of financial sources.
"Considering the current situation we can't give any specific date for the completion of the projects," he added.
According to Etesami, the government owes some $50 million to SADRA Company.
"Currently the contractor is using the funds of other phases for developing the phases 12, 15 and 16 since they are more than 90 percent complete," he added.
He also said that SADRA Company has been blacklisted since 2010 and cannot directly buy equipment but it has formed some groups in Europe and China to negotiate and buy the required equipment.
South Pars is part of a wider gas field that is shared with Qatar . The larger field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran 's territorial waters (South Pars) in the Persian Gulf .
The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, referred to as the North Dome, are in Qatar 's territorial waters.
The Iranian gas field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, about eight percent of the world's reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of LNG resources.
SADRA was founded in 1968 as a small ship repair yard in Iran's southern Bushehr port city.
Since then, SADRA has established itself as the leading shipbuilding and shiprepairing company in Iran. The company is also active in offshore oil & gas development. SADRA specializes in building ships, docks and floating oil rigs.