By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 23
The annual exploitation from South Pars gas field will be equal to that of Qatar by June 2017, Ali Akbar Shabanpour, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) said.
Shabanpour said that phases 18, 19, 20 and 21 of the South Pars gas field will become operational during the current Iranian fiscal year (started March 20), Mehr news agency reported Aug. 23.
Once the phases become operational, Iran's daily gas production in the field will increase by 100 million cubic meters.
Currently Iran’s gas production in the field stands at 430 million cubic meters per day, he said, adding that by July 2017, the output will increase to 530 mcm/d which is equal to Qatar’s daily output.
Shabanpour further forecasted that Iran’s daily gas production in the joint field will surpass 800 mcm by 2020.
Iran's exploitation of South Pars was 50 percent of Qatar's in the fiscal year to March 2014.
Iran and Qatar were equal in exploiting the gas field in 2005-2006.
South Pars 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.