“The first stage of Phase 11 development is aimed at producing 1 billion cubic feet per day of gas. The extracted gas will be transferred to the refineries in Asaluyeh and Kangan,” Zanganeh told Mehr News Agency on Tuesday.
He expressed hope the phase will go on stream by the end of the current government’s tenure (September 2021).
Zanganeh added that domestic experts are conducting “pressure boosting” studies on South Pars wells in a bid to enhance production from the giant reservoir.
Earlier this year, he said the domestic firm, Petropars, would develop phase 11 of South Pars following the withdrawal of French oil major Total and the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC).
French Total S.A. signed a $5 billion agreement in November 2016 to develop SP Phase 11(one of the least developed phases) as head of a consortium that included China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Iran’s state-owned firm Petropars.
After canceling the agreement to develop the field due to the mounting US pressure and new sanctions that forced international firms to walk away from Iran in 2018, the French energy company submitted the project's documents to its partner, CNPC, in October 2018.
South Pars is the world’s largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. It adjoins Qatar’s North Field that measures 6,000 square kilometers.
The reservoir constitutes 96% of liquefied petroleum gas, 100% of ethane and 55% of sulfur produced in Iran.
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