BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 21
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
Iran has achieved the desired production from the Iran-Qatar joint South Pars gas field (this field is called North Dome in Qatar), said Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, Trend reports citing IRINN.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ordered the installation of the equipment in the 11th phase of the South Pars gas field today (May 21).
According to Zanganeh, during the first US sanctions against Iran, the development of the South Pars gas field faced a number of problems.
Zanganeh added that within a short period of time with the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran took the opportunity to import a number of necessary equipment. With this, a lot of unfinished work was completed.
The minister said that by 2013 (the current Iranian government came to power in 2013), work on 10 phases of the South Pars gas field had been completed.
"With the exception of 11th phase, work has been completed on 17 unfinished phases during this period," he said.
Zangeneh said that 500 million cubic feet (14.1 million cubic meters) of gas will be produced by drilling 5 wells and installing the platform over the next 14 months.
The minister added that work on Iran's South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf will be completed in this year (starting March 20, 2020).
"However, over the past several years, the price of crude oil has fallen sharply and the price of oil has not been $100. Despite all these difficulties, the Ministry of Petroleum has taken steps to complete all production work in the South Pars gas field. In this regard, the National Development Fund of Iran has also provided assistance to the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran," he said.
France's Total and China's CNPC withdrew from the project due to the US sanctions against Iran, and Iran's Petropars Company took over the project.
The South Pars gas field is a joint gas field of Iran and Qatar. The proven reserves of the South Pars Gas Field are estimated at 51 trillion cubic meters of gas, of which 36 trillion are extractable. At present, Iran's daily gas production from the South Pars gas field is more than 700 million cubic meters. Iran has so far spent $33 billion on projects of the South Pars gas field.
The US imposed new sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies and individuals. Iran has put increasing oil exports on its agenda due to a sharp decline in crude oil exports.
Iran has 125 oil fields and 59 gas fields.
