Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has arrived at the country’s South Pars Oil and Gas Field to directly follow and supervise the trend of progress in the development projects underway there.

The South Pars Oil and Gas Field tops the Oil Ministry’s agenda, said Zanganeh on Thursday before departing Tehran for South Pars, which is located in the Persian Gulf near the port city of Asalouyeh. The oil and gas field is shared by Iran and Qatar.


“The Oil Ministry is trying to put the completed phases of South Pars into service as we urgently need these joint fields given the country’s need for gas,” he said.

Included in Zanganeh’s schedule is an aerial inspection of the various phases of the major oil and gas production facility as well as a joint meeting with the executives and managers of the projects at the complex.

Senior deputies and managers of the Oil Ministry are accompanying Zanganeh during his tour of the South Pars complex.

South Pars is part of a wider gas field that is shared with Qatar. The larger field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran's territorial waters (South Pars) 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.

Following his confirmation as oil minister by Iran’s Majlis, Zanganeh pledged to boost the country’s oil output, saying, “My first action will be to bring the country’s oil production capacity back to the 2005 levels.”

Zanganeh said an ad hoc committee will also be set up to study the US-engineered sanctions against the Islamic Republic and find ways to boost Iran’s oil exports.

 

News ID 185125