TEHRAN- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ordered start of the jacket installation in the Block-B reservoir of South Pars gas field ‘s phase 11 of development via video conference on Thursday, Shana reported.

Loading the mentioned structure, the development of phase 11 was started.

According to Hamidreza Masoudi, the managing director of Petropars Company, which is in charge of developing the phase, the installation of the 2,200-ton jacket will be completed by mid-June and drilling operations of the phase are expected to be started immediately.

Masoudi expressed hope that the phase is going to become operational in the next Iranian calendar year 1400 (starts on March 2021).

The official noted that the operations are progressing based on schedules and Petropars is working on the project with complete determination.

The jacket of Platform B of phase 11 project, which was loaded at the yard of NSQ on Sadaf 3000 Barge on April 30, was placed at a depth of 71 meters in the Persian Gulf.

This is the first of two jackets in the project which will allow drilling 12 wells in the phase located close to the Iran-Qatar sea border in the Persian Gulf.

The jacket weighs 2,200 tons and the first well of the phase is planned to come online next year.

Petropars is developing the phase 11 project after its partners, Total and CNPCI, pulled out of the project due to the U.S. sanctions.

The project aims to generate 2 billion cubic feet of rich gas, and transfer it to existing South Pars refineries and use the refinery's processing capacity.

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.

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.

The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue the implementation of important oil projects including the development of joint oil and gas fields in the current Iranian year.

Being among the world’s top four countries that have the largest proven deposits of crude oil and natural gas, Iran shares the broad offshore field with Qatar in the southern Iranian region of the Persian Gulf.

MA/MA