“According to plans, the country’s gas production capacity will increase by 100 million cubic meters per day by the end of the year, a large part of which will be produced in South Pars [Gas & Oil Field] phases such as [phases] 12, 15 and 16,” Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ahmad Qalebani said on Saturday.
“South Pars will attract a total of USD 30 billion of investment in foreign currency and rials,” the Iranian official added.
“Domestic producers play a major part in manufacturing and providing equipment for the petroleum industry; and today more than 70 percent of the required goods and equipment of many sectors are provided by Iranian manufacturers,” Qalebani said.
Head of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Mohammadreza Zahiri said on February 16 that Iran has increased the production capacity of the giant offshore South Pars gas field by 20 percent over the past two Persian calendar years (since March 2011).
Iran, which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, is making efforts to up its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in South Pars.
South Pars Gas & Oil Field is part of a wider gas field that is shared with Qatar. The total field area is 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which - South Pars - are in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, referred to as the North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.
The Iranian gas field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, about eight percent of the world's reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of LNG resources.