Baku, Azerbaijan, June 21
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
The offshore development of Iran's South Pars gas field phases 20 and 21 is complete by 72 percent, said Motalleb Afshari, the manager of the project.
The construction of offshore platforms at the two phases has progressed by 79 percent, Iran's IRNA news agency quoted Afshari as saying on June 21.
Some 17 kilometers of pipeline in the phase 21 has been laid from a total of 103 kilometers which is projected to be laid over the course of 2.5 months, he said, adding that 96 kilometers of pipeline will also be laid in the phase 20 of the gas field.
The development of the phases 20 and 21 is aimed to produce 50 million cubic meters of natural gas, 77,000 barrels of gas condensates, and 400 metric tons of sulfur per day, as well as 1.1 million metric tons of LPG and one million metric ton of ethane per year.
The South Pars field has 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas -or about eight percent of the world's reserves- and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.
The field 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 Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, referred to as the North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.
The gas field's total production currently stands at over 280 million cubic meters from which 202 million cubic meters is being pumped to the national gas network.
Iran plans to inaugurate all phases of the gas field by 2018 and boost its output to 720 mcm.