Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

All phases of the giant South Pars gas field will come on stream by 2015, when all remaining projects will be commissioned, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said, Press TV reported.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the refinery related to phases 15 and 16 of South Pars in Asalouyeh -- located some 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) south of Tehran -- Qasemi informed on July 31 that 17 phases of the field are currently being developed.

He added that Iran will extract as much natural gas as neighboring Qatar from the joint reservoir once the development of these phases is complete.

The South Pars/North Dome, which is located in the Persian Gulf, is the world's largest gas field and is shared by Iran and Qatar.

The minister said that 80 percent of phases 17 and 18 of the South Pars gas field has been developed and they will be operational by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (ending March 20, 2014).

Qasemi further noted that phase 12 will start yielding 50 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas per day in winter.

The field's recoverable gas reserves are estimated to be equivalent to 215 billion barrels of oil. It also holds about 16 billion barrels of recoverable condensate.

The Iranian oil minister said the new South Pars gas field projects are expected to complete in 50 months, noting that this comes as foreign contractors had pledged to launch the projects in 60-86 months.

Furthermore, Project Manager for South Pars phase 12, Mahmoud Rahbari has recently said that the largest phase of the massive offshore South Pars gas field will come on stream by the end of September.

Rahbari said transmission of sweetened natural gas has started from onshore to offshore facilities in preparation for the commissioning of the first gas production platform in this phase.

He further noted that the flare of the platform will be lit in early August once sweetened gas starts flowing through a 150-kilometer subsea pipeline.

Rahbari added that 15 million cubic meters (mcm) a day of sour gas will be carried from this platform to onshore facilities in September.

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.