Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 24
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend:
Iran currently produces 252,000 barrels of oil at its joint oilfields with neighboring counties, the Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company, Roknoddin Javadi, said on Jan. 24, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported.
"Iran also produces 283 million cubic meters of gas at the joint oilfields," he said.
"Border disputes with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia is the main reason behind the slow development of Arash joint oilfield," Javadi added.
"The development project of other joint oilfields with Saudi Arabia including Farzad B and Esfandiar is also slow," he noted.
"The national Iranian oil company is using its full capacity to develop the country's join oilfields," Javadi said.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Nov. 30 that the development of joint oil and gas fields is a national task, IRIB reported.
"We should place the priority on the development of joint oil and gas fields. Iran has a number of joint fields with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq," Zanganeh said.
Majlis Research Center reported in January 2013 that the total extraction volume of Iran's neighbors from the joint oil and gas fields is currently nine times more than Tehran 's share.
Former Iranian oil minister Rostam Qasemi said in June 2012 that Tehran has attached the priority on boosting gas production capacity from its joint oilfields with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The country, which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, has been trying to enhance its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in its South Pars gas field.
South Pars 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 Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, referred to as the North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.
The Iranian gas field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, about eight percent of the world's reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of LNG resources.