TEHRAN - Phases 13, 22, 23 and 24 of developing Iran’s South Pars gas field were officially inaugurated by President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday, Shana reported.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh also accompanied the president in the inauguration ceremony.

As reported, the total investment made in these mega projects is estimated at about $11 billion, which, given the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in the Iranian calendar year of 1396 (that was $427 billion), the value of the projects exceeds two percent of the country's total GDP.

With the inauguration of these phases, for the first time Iran’s gas production from the giant South Pars will exceeds that of Qatar with which the country shares the field in the Persian Gulf.

The mentioned phases are aimed at production of 56 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas, 75,000 barrels of gas condensate and 400 tons of sulfur per day in addition to one million tons of ethane and one million tons of propane and butane per annum.

During his visit to Bushehr Province in southwest of the country, the president also inaugurated the South Pars refineries gas metering systems and a mercaptan production plant in the port city of Assaluyeh as well as the Assaluyeh-Kangan ethane pipeline through video conference.

South Pars is divided into 24 standard phases of development in the first stage. Most of the phases are fully operational at the moment.

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

The 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.

Other projects inaugurated during president’s trip

On the sidelines of President Rouhani’s visit to Bushehr Province, a cement production unit was inaugurated through video conference and the ground was also laid for three other industrial projects.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by a handful of officials including Deputy Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade Saeed Zarandi and Head of Bushehr Province’s Industry, Mining and Trade Department Hossein Hosseini.

As reported, with $3.8 trillion rials (about $90.48 million) of investment, the Mond-Dashti Cement Production Unit has the annual capacity of producing 1.2 million tons of cement and creates over 170 job opportunities.

Other three projects included a paper production unit and two lead acid storage tanks for producing batteries in which 1.9 trillion rials ($45.57 million) has been invested.

President Rouhani also inaugurated six electricity projects worth 899 billion rials (about $21.4 million) in Bushehr Province.

EF/MA