The long-awaited South Pars Oil Layer Project will go underway next week upon the installation of a new oil extraction platform in the South Pars field in the Persian Gulf, Tasnim News Agency said in a report.
Phase 1 of the crude extraction project from joint oil and gas fields with Qatar will have the capacity to draw an estimated 35,000 barrels of oil per day. The implementation of Phase 2 will commence should extraction prove feasible and economical. The project – undertaken by the Petroiran Development Company (PEDCO) in 2005 – was initially due for completion by a 2013 deadline.
The installation of the new platform is part of plans to increase the country's extraction rate from joint fields with Qatar. However, production from the new platform cannot start since there is neither a floating storage unit nor a pipeline to deliver oil to onshore sector.
Iran has 26 joint oil and gas fields with its neighboring states, but a lack of modern technology and sufficient budget for developing the fields have slowed the rate of Iran's extraction. Meanwhile, the tiny Arab neighbor Qatar is reportedly drawing 600,000 bpd from South Pars oil layers, and so far it has extracted more than one billion barrels.
