TEHRAN - Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has officially inaugurated Phase 11 of the South Pars gas field, which is the last phase of the giant field’s development project in the Persian Gulf, Iranian Oil Ministry’s news portal Shana reported.

During a Monday visit to Asaluyeh port in the southwestern Bushehr Province, Raisi opened the project and met with local people as well as oil industry managers and experts.

South Pars Phase 11 will initially produce 15 million cubic meters of gas per day before raising recovery to 56 million cubic meters of gas, 50,000 barrels of gas condensate, and 750 metric tons of sulfur per day.

The gas from South Pars Phase 11 will be transferred to the onshore refinery of Phase 12, where it will be processed and injected into the national gas network.

According to Head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Mohsen Khojasteh Mehr, South Pars Phase 11 will have 24 wells and generate an annual income of $5 billion once its development is completed.

“The development of South Pars Phase 11 is one of the NIOC’s most strategic and important plans and projects, which finally came online in the current government after a 20-year delay,” he said.

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.

The mentioned phase was finally developed by Petropars after its partners left the contract. The drilling operation for the first well of the mentioned phase was officially started in December 2020.

South Pars field, which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, 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