The development of each new phase in South Pars Gas Field will increase the daily extraction of natural gas by as much as 28.3 million cubic meters per day, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company said.
“The launch of phases 19 to 21and completion of phases 17 and 18 top the Oil Ministry's priority list, for which the much-needed platforms are being loaded and carried to their locations in the Persian Gulf,” Ali Akbar Shabanpour was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
According to the official, the South Pars mega project will be developed in 24 phases and as soon as the whole initiative goes on stream, extraction capacity will reach 740 mcm/d.
Pointing to the ministry's policies to unleash the domestic skilled workforce's potentials to develop the plan, Shabanpour said, "Since 1997 when South Pars development operations started, serious endeavors have been made to indigenize platform construction industry and except for phases 2 and 3 platforms, Iranian experts have played a key role in constructing the other platforms. In addition, they are capable of not only manufacturing but also laying submarine pipelines to complete offshore facilities."
Underscoring the fact that platforms 18B, 21 and 19A have been loaded from Bandar Abbas and Khorramshahr yards, the official noted that plans have been made to install the platforms in the next two weeks with the help of domestic contractors.
Stressing that construction of each platform costs approximately $200 million depending on their capacity, Shabanpour noted that domestic technical and engineering workforce accounts for 70% of the development process.
Domestic Capacity
"Not long ago, foreign oil giants like Shell and Total played a key role not only in building but also in installing the platforms," Hamid Rezaeian, managing director of Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Company, said.
"Relying on experiences gained in recent years, ISOICO experts are capable of constructing complicated platforms in less than two years unless financial constraints impede their progress."
Rezaeian noted that quality-wise, what they manufacture is compatible with international standards.
"ISOICO's shipyard, located near the Strait of Hormuz 37 km west of Bandar Abbas, is capable of constructing bulk carriers, containerships and oil product carriers using advance technology," he added.
According to Shabanpour, the Persian Gulf state's daily extraction from South Pars amounts to 430 mcm/d, which will exceed 530 mcm/d by the yearend.
Reportedly, Iran's neighboring tiny state, Qatar, has extracted more than 177 billion cubic meters from the field during the last three years, drawing the lion's share of the underground reserves. Iran, whose extraction during the said period stands at 132 bcm, is still lagging behind Qatar in terms of extraction.
Iran is planning to boost gas production capacity from 430 million cubic meters per day at present to 1 billion cubic meters a day in 2017 and to 1.2 bcm per day by 2020.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. It adjoins Qatar’s North Field, which measures 6,000 square kilometers. The field has a capacity of producing 820 mcm/d and 1 mcm/d of gas and gas condensates, respectively.
