Iran to outdo Qatar in production from joint gas field: Oil minister

Iran’s oil minister says the Islamic Republic will outperform Qatar in recovery from the giant offshore South Pars gas field the two countries share in the Persian Gulf waters.

Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Iran is accelerating the development of the main phases of the gas reservoir.

“With the start-up of these phases up to [the calendar year] 96 (starts in March 2017), Iran will be outdistancing Qatar in daily gas recovery [from South Pars],” the Iranian oil minister stated.

Zanganeh said development of 17 phases of South Pars will enhance Iran’s gas production by 400 million cubic meters (mcm) a day.

Iran has already started pumping natural gas from phase 12 of South Pars, which is the biggest phase in terms of volume of activities as well as investment and production levels.

When fully operational, phase 12 will see some 100 mcm per day of sweet gas pumped into Iran’s gas trunklines.

South Pars covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.

The gas field is estimated to contain a significant amount of natural gas, accounting for about eight percent of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.