TEHRAN – Iranian Oil Minister Javad Oji has said phase 11 of the South Pars gas field development project is going to go operational as of the seventh Iranian calendar month of Mehr (begins on September 21), producing 670 million cubic feet (CF) of natural gas on a daily basis.

“We made the implementation of the phase 11 development project a priority, and with the measures and initiatives taken by our colleagues in the Oil Ministry, I promise you that production will start in the phase 11 development plan as of Mehr this year,” Oji said.

The minister noted that the development of the mentioned phase has been completely carried out by domestic companies, Shana reported on Wednesday.

Iran had previously awarded the development of the phase 11 project to a consortium comprised of France’s Total, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), and Petropars which is a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), however Total and CNPCI pulled out of the project in 2019 due to the U.S. sanctions.

Currently, Petropars is developing the phase 11 project after its partners left the contract.

The drilling operation for the first well of mentioned phase was officially started in December 2020. In the early production stage, the output of this phase will reach 500 million cubic feet (equivalent to 14 million cubic meters) per day.

Back in January, the managing director of Petropars Company had announced the implementation of two new contracts as of December 22, 2021, to accelerate the development of the mentioned phase.

According to Hamid-Reza Masoudi, the mentioned deals were concerned with the construction of an off-shore pipeline as well as the installation of the phase’s SDP11B platform.

Located in the Persian Gulf waters in southern Iran, South Pars is the world’s largest gas field, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran’s territorial waters.

The giant 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. The field is divided into 24 standard phases.

EF/MA