Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi said the South Pars oil and gas field projects are going ahead according to the time table, and stressed that three more phases of the development plan of the field will come on stream soon.

"Three phases of the South Pars Gas and Oil Field (phases 12, 15 and 16) will be completed by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2014) as scheduled," Qassemi said.

He noted that the Iranian oil engineers and experts are working day and night on the South Pars projects.

In November, Managing-Director of Pars Oil and Gas Company Mousa Souri announced that Iran will increase gas production in the giant South Pars gas field, adding that the country would surpass Qatar's gas production in the shared field.

Souri said at the time Iran's gas recovery from South Pars would equal Qatar's after five new phases of the giant field come on stream.

He added that the development of phases 12, 15, 16, 17 and 18 of South Pars would add nearly 200 million cubic meters per day (mcmpd) of sour gas to the shared field's output on the Iranian side.

Iran is currently producing 300 mcmpd of gas from South Pars.

Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (PSEEZ) was established in 1988‏‎ for the utilization of South ‎Pars oil and gas resources and encouraging commercial activities in the field of oil, gas and ‎petrochemical industries.‎

South Pars gas field is a natural gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the field holds an estimated 1,800 trillion cubic feet (51 trillion cubic meters) of in-situ natural gas and some 50 billion barrels (7.9 billion cubic meters) of natural gas condensate.

News ID 184515