Baku, Azerbaijan, March 30
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran's South Pars gas field's output reached 130 billion cubic meters in the last fiscal year (ended March 20), Ali Akbar Shabanpour, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) said.
The field's natural gas output indicates an increase by 15 percent compared to the preceding year, Shabanpour said, SHANA news agency reported March 30.
South Pars, located in southern region, is divided into 24 development phases, and contains 40 trillion cubic meters of natural gas.
It covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers are situated in Qatar's territorial waters.
Shabanpour said that said phase 17 to 21 of the gas field is expected to become fully operational before March 2017.
The Islamic Republic is producing over 420 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of gas from South Pars, while the production level is projected to surpass 700 mcm/d by late 2018.
Iran's oil officials say after inauguration of the 17-21 phases, projects at phases 22, 23, 24, 13 and 14 of the field will become the first priorities.