The Majlis has passed a law requiring the government to increase extraction of crude oil, gas and gas condensate from joint fields "at least on a par" with neighboring countries, ILNA reported.
According to the law, the volume of extraction from joint fields must reach a minimum of 100 million tons per year in ten years. Additionally, capacity of crude and gas condensate refining must increase by at least 5 million barrels per day.
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh had earlier stressed that increasing extraction from joint oil fields is on the ministry's agenda and development of Iran-Turkmenistan fields must be accelerated.
The ministry is also planning to increase extraction from the six Iran-Iraq joint fields and "good progress has been made in this regard," according to Zanganeh.
Most of Iran's offshore oil reserves being in the northern part of the Caspian Sea and most of the offshore natural gas reserves in the Persian Gulf. However, it has failed to capitalize on its vast joint underwater resources.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, a major pipeline allowing Azerbaijan oil to flow straight to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan opened in 2006. In 2012, Azerbaijan extracted 890000 barrels, Turkmenistan 46000, Russia 6000, and Kazakhstan 3000 barrels of oil daily, while Iran's share of extraction in the Caspian Sea has remained zero.
The Majlis Research Center reported in January 2013 the total extraction of neighbors from joint fields was nine times higher than Iran at that time.
Dehloran, West Paydar, Naft Shahr, Azadegan, Yadavaran, and Azar are the joint oilfields between Iran and Iraq. Iran produced around 130,000 barrels of oil from these fields, while Iraq produced 295,000 barrels at the time, according to the report.
Iran produced 42,000 barrels of oil from the three joint fields with Saudi Arabia, while the kingdom's output was close to 450,000 barrels per day.
Iran also produces 283 million cubic meters of gas at its joint South Pars gas field with Qatar in the Persian Gulf. However, the tiny Arab emirate produces 460 million cubic meters of gas per day mostly from South Pars field, according to a BP report.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field, 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.
It also shares two gas fields with Kuwait and Oman.
Iran holds the world’s second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, and the fourth-largest proved crude oil reserves. Total oil reserves are estimated at 150 billion barrels. Moreover, heavy and extra heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of total reserves.
