Iran’s oil minister Bijan Namadar Zanganeh says the country would wrap up development work at South Pars gas field, the world’s biggest natural gas reserve located in the Persian Gulf, in 10 months by late March 2021 when the current Iranian calendar year comes to its end.
“Development stages for the massive South Pars gas field will finish this year,” said Zanganeh in an interview with the IRIB news agency.
The comments came hours after an Iranian contractor responsible for developing the Phase 11 of South Pars began installation work for a supersize jacket that is expected to hold the 11B drilling platform.
Zanganeh said installation of the jacket is a major part of building out Phase 11, the last and most complicated of all 28 phases of South Pars in terms of development. He added that once the rig is fully installed, the contractor would be able to drill 12 offshore wells on the site of the project.
Iran has started installation work for a supersize jacket which will hold drilling platform at Block B of South Pars Phase 11. Photo: Shana
Iran hopes full development of phase 11 of South Pars could increase production by nearly 57 million cubic meters (two billion cubic feet). That comes as the project had stalled for two years after French energy giant Total and China’s CNPC withdrew under increasing pressure from the United States.
Zanganeh said total production from all phases of South Pars would top 750 million cubic meters per day until the end of the current calendar year in March.
The minister said that would mean a triple increase in production from the field compared to 2013, when the current administrative government took office.