A senior oil official said the prospect of matching and outpacing Qatar’s gas production capacity from the joint South Pars Gas Field is likely.
“The launch of four South Pars phases will allow Iran to match the natural gas output of Qatar from the joint field and ultimately overtake it next year,” Ali Akbar Shabanpour, the executive director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, was also quoted as saying by Shana.
The official said the launch of South Pars’ phases 18, 20 and 21 as well as Phase 19–which equals two standard phases in terms of scope of operation and output—is key to challenge the small Arab rival that has pumped nearly double Iran’s total gas output.
“Qatar started production from the shared field in 1989, while Iran made its late foray more than a decade later,” he said.
Shabanpour noted that Qatar’s gas production over the past three years averages 177 billion cubic meters per year, or more than 480 million cubic meters per day.
This is while Iran’s average output over the same period stands at 132 bcm/y, or around 360 mcm/d. However, Iran is now raising the ante in the gas race with Qatar.
According to the official, the first 10 phases of South Pars cost Iran $13.4 billion, but the country’s investment in phases 12-24 exceeded $50 billion. Iran is planning to reach a production capacity of 1 billion cubic meters per day from South Pars within two years and reach 1.2 bcm/d by 2020.
