Gas output from South Pars Gas Field is targeted to increase by 100 million cubic meters per day once the drilling of wells in the offshore sector of phases 12, 15, 16, 17 and 18, and parts of phases 19, 20 and 21 is completed, according to the managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company.
"Thanks to the incremental progress of projects in the onshore and offshore sectors, production capacity in high-priority phases will exceed 200 mcm by the end of the current Iranian year (March 19, 2016)," ILNA quoted Ali Akbar Shabanpour as saying during the closing ceremony of pipeline laying process of the offshore phases 20 and 21.
According to the official, the field's production capacity was increased by 100 mcm/d over the past year and is planned to swell by another 100 mcm/d this year.
Shabanpour pointed to South Pars as the country's energy capital and scientific hub for transferring knowhow to other sectors active in gas and petrochemical fields, and underscored the huge amount of work that went into developing the joint field in the face of sanctions imposed by the West.
"Our perseverance resulted in operating 17 phases, launching 40 offshore platforms and drilling 406 wells, over 170 of which are currently operational," he said.
"Additionally, a 4,000-km-long pipeline was constructed by the Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company, only 700 km of which were handled by foreign companies."
Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company Rokneddin Javadi had earlier said the launch of four offshore platforms of South Pars Gas Field's phases 19-21 by March 2016 will significantly ramp up gas production in the country's biggest gas field.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field, shared by Iran and Qatar, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, adjoining Qatar’s North Field, which measures 6,000 square kilometers. It holds an estimated 40 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, or equal to roughly 8% of the world’s reserves and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.
SP output accounts for more than 50% of Iran's total gas production capacity, which is expected to rise to 75% next year.
