Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran needs $50 billion to develop its joint oil and gas fields.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that to develop the remaining phases of the South Pars gas fields, as well as implement the development plan of the West Karoun oilfields, some $50 billion should be invested, Iran's Shana news agency reported September 3.
The government has put the priority on boosting output of joint fields, he noted.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Zanganeh said that over 77 percent of the country's total population benefits from natural gas. Some 8 million people will be added in the next two years.
According to latest statistics, Iran had a population of 77.5 million in 2013.
Iran's refineries produced 178 billion cubic meters of refined gas, of which 91 bcm was consumed by households.
While Iran has 28 joint oil and gas fields with neighbors, the country hasn't commenced any new oil filed since 2007 and the development pace of other fields are very slow.
However, Iran has accelerated developing the remained phases (10 to 29) of South Pars, the world's biggest gas reserve.
South Pars, a joint gas field between Iran and Qatar, holds about 10 percent of global conventional gas reserves.
Iran also plans to make $20 billion investment to boost its oil production by over 700,000 bpd by the end of Iranian calendar year 1396 (March 2017-March 2018).
The country hopes to raise oil production from West Karoun (the five oilfields Iran shares with Iraq) to 250,000 barrels per day by the end of this Iranian year, from the currently 100,000 barrels per day.
Iran has drawn up a list of some 50 oil and gas projects worth $185 billion which it intends to start developing once longstanding economic sanctions against the country are lifted, most likely later this year, or early in 2016.
Edited by CN