Azernews.Az

Iran will outpace Qatar in extraction of natural gas from South Pars gas field by March 2018.

Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that the development of five phases of the gas field will be completed in Iranian year 1396 (March 2017-March 2018). Once the phases come on stream, Iran will boost gas production by 400 million cubic meters(mcmpd), Iran's Mehr news agency quoted Zanganeh as saying on August 27.

He also said that the country's gas condensate production will increase by 600,000 barrels per day.

Iran is producing a little more than 300 mcmpd of gross gas from 11 phases of South Pars. Iran had been produced gas from phases one to ten, but started gas production from Phase 12 in last winter and has boosted the output from this phase to 25 mcmpd last month.

Iran also produces a little more than 0.4 million barrels per day of gas condensate, mostly from South Pars.

This is while, Qatar's dry natural gas production reached 5.5 trillion cubic feet in 2012, (equals to 420 mcmpd) and the vast majority of Qatar's production comes from the North Field (South Pars), the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

Qatar's gas condensate output from this join field is more than Iran.

Based on statements from government officials, some industry sources believe Qatar's condensate production could surpass 800,000 bbl/d by 2015 and reach nearly 1 million bbl/d by 2016.

On the other hand, while Qatar extracts 450,000 barrels per day of crude oil from the oil layer of the field, Iran still has not tapped the oil layer yet.

Iran's largest gas field is South Pars, a non-associated gas field located offshore in the middle of the Persian Gulf. South Pars is a portion of a larger gas structure that straddles the territorial water borders of Iran and Qatar. It is called the Northfield in Qatar. South Pars reserves account for roughly 40% of Iran's total gas reserves, and the field is also estimated to hold 17 million barrels of condensate in place.