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Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi has ordered the Pars Oil and Gas Company to fine some of the contractors at the giant South Pars gas field's development area, Trend news agency reported.

Some of the phases of the gas field are way behind the schedule, Mehr news agency reported.

The development plan covering five phases of Iran's giant South Pars gas field (phases 15-18 and phase 12) has entered its 66th month.

These phases were supposed to come on stream by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20) but none is complete yet, Mehr news agency reported.

Iran is currently producing around 285 mcm of gas per day from South Pars.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had said that the gas field's production capacity would reach 480 mcm by September, equalling Iran and Qatar's pace of tapping the joint gas field.

Iran has extracted 500 billion cubic meters of gas from South Pars over 15 years.

Qatar announced last year that its total gas extraction from the field had reached one trillion cubic meters.

The Iranian oil minister said in November, 2012 that 775 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas per day could be extracted from South Pars after all its phases come on stream.

According to the managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, Mousa Souri, Iran has invested over seven billion dollars in the giant South Pars gas field in the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year which began March 20.

The oil ministry has used the money to equip different phases of South Pars, he said.

By the end of the current year (March 19, 2013) the amount would be raised to 10 billion dollars, Souri added.

Iran, 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 field covers an area of 9700 square kilometres, 3700 square kilometres of which are in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6000 square kilometres, 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 per cent of the world's reserves.