Tehran, Iran, January 28
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
The production of oil at South Pars field is postponed for one month, according to an unnamed source from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
Bad weather has made it impossible to tap the field and the production should be held until March, the source told Fars news agency January 28.
The source said a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit which was to begin tapping the South Pars oil layer has berthed in the Persian Gulf and was going to start operation in February.
The oil layer is situated in the middle of the Persian Gulf 130 kilometers away from Asaluyeh seashore in Iran and extends down south to Qatar where it is called Al Shaheen Oil Field. The field was discovered and tapped by Qatar in 1992. Its in-situ oil is said to stand somewhere between 1.5 to 4 billion barrels.
In 2009, Qatar was producing 300,000 bpd of oil from the field. But it hired Maersk to improve the output to 525,000 bpd by 2010.
Iran has now hired Maersk for studies into the oil layer. The NIOC source said Iran has urged the company to finish the studies as soon as possible so that Tehran may sign a development contract with them in a couple of months.
