Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.27
By Emil Ilgar - Trend:
Iran will start oil production from South Pars by March 2017, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said.
Iran has increased gas production from South Pars from 250 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) in 2013 to about 430 mcm/d currently, but it is still developing an oil layer there.
Iran's sharing partner Qatar produces 450,000 barrels per day from the oil layer of this joint field.
Zanhaneh said that after long delay, the first step of oil extraction from the oil layer of South Pars would start this current fiscal year, which will end March 20, 2017.
Iran plans to complete South Pars project by 2021 and increase the gas output from this field to about 800 mcm/d.
The country has invested $55 billion in South Pars and needs $11 billion more, the managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company Ali Akbar Shabanpour said at a conference in Tehran August 23.