Iran plans to raise gas output from South Pars by 2017
By Sara Rajabova
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has promised to increase the production from the giant South Pars gas field by 2017.
During a visit to the Asalouyeh city in the southern Iranian province of Bushehr on November 30, Rouhani said his government plans to speed up the development of the South Pars gas field, which is shared between Iran and Qatar, Press TV reported.
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 (referred to as South Pars) in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, referred to as the North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.
He said, when fully developed, the country's income from South Pars field will reach $100 billion a year despite the current $40 billion.
Iran's new oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said earlier the top priority of his ministry is completing several phases of South Pars oil and gas field.
Zanganeh said accelerating natural gas production in phases 12, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 at the joint Iran-Qatar South Pars complex is a top priority of the Iranian Oil Ministry since their total production adds up to nearly 170 million cubic meters per day.
Iran is currently producing 300 million cubic meters (mcm) per day of gas from South Pars.
Over the past three years, about $46 billion has been invested in the South Pars gas field.
Iran, which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, is making efforts to attract more foreign and domestic investment, especially in South Pars, in order to boost gas production.
The South Pars field, which is divided into 29 phases, has about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight percent of total world reserves.