Iran to Catch Up with Qatar in South Pars Gas Production: VP
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri said the country will soon reach Qatar in terms of producing gas from the huge offshore South Pars gas field, which it shares with the Arab country in the Persian Gulf.
Iran’s oil production in West Karoun’s oil field in the south was 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the early days of President Hassan Rouhani’s administration (summer of 2013), Jahangiri said in a ceremony on Thursday.
But that amount has now risen to 280,000 bpd after nearly three years and a half, he said.
The Iranian official also referred to oil output in the country’s South Pars gas field, saying that Tehran expects a significant rise in production in the huge energy hub not in the too distant future as a result of measures taken by the government to develop more phases there.
By the end of this administration’s term (August), Iran will catch up with Qatar in terms of daily production in the field, Jahangiri stated.
Recently, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said the country will launch four more major phases of the huge South Pars gas field project in the Persian Gulf in the near future.
He added that the new phases will add nearly 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas to the country’s total annual gas production capacity.
The South Pars gas field, whose development has been divided into 28 phases, is located in the Persian Gulf straddling the maritime border between Iran and Qatar.
It is estimated that the Iranian section of the field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of condensates in place.
