Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.20
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran has halted early production at phases 15 and 16 of the South Pars gas field, the Mehr News Agency reported on Jan. 20.
Production halted at the two phases will continue until the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20).
The National Iranian Oil Company plans to drill 22 wells during the two phases. Currently, construction of the platforms of the phases 16 and 15 are complete by 95 percent and 94 percent, respectively.
The first unit of gas sweetening at phases 15 and 16 started production on Nov.24, 2013, the Mehr News Agency reported.
Development operations of the two phases began 77 months ago. The two phases are projected to produce 50 million cubic meters of gas, 80,000 barrels of condensates, and 400 tons of sulfur per day, and one million tons of liquefied gas per year.
In August 2013, ISNA quoted Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh as saying that the phases 15 and 16 of the South Pars gas field may come on stream in the second half of the next Iranian calendar year, which starts on March 21, 2014.
Zanganeh said that the Oil Ministry has a special focus on completing and inaugurating the South Pars' gas field phases 12, 15, 16, 17, and 18.
South Pars is a joint gas field of Iran andQatar. The field on the Iranian side holds 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and has been divided into 29 phases, phases 1 to 8 have been developed completely. Phases 9 and 10 have been developed, but not to full capacity and phases 11 to 29 are under construction.
Iran on Dec. 4 named seven Western oil companies it wants back in its vast oil and gas fields if international sanctions are lifted and said it would outline investment terms in April next year, Reuters reported.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh named the seven in order: Total of France, Royal Dutch Shell, Italy's ENI, Norway's Statoil, Britain's BP and U.S. companies Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips.
Iran has the world's fourth-largest proved national reserves of oil - most of it cheap to produce - and is home to the biggest proved reserves of natural gas, some 18 percent of the global total.
Edited by C.N.