Iran to Start Tapping into Phase 11 of South Pars Gas Field by Sep. 2021

“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 said on Tuesday, voicing hope that the phase will go on stream by the end of the current government’s tenure (September 2021).

Namdar 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.

Late in January, Namdar Zanganeh rejected the rumors that Tehran has stopped working on the development of phase 11 of South Pars gas field, reassuring that domestic companies have replaced former contractors to keep the project on track.

Early in December, Head of Production Operations at the Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Hadi Fakhrzadeh said that Iranian engineers and technicians managed to overhaul 22 offshore platforms in the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, independent of any foreign company or entity and depending 100% on domestic capabilities and potentials.

Fakhrzadeh added that natural gas, as a key part of the country's energy mix, plays an important role in meeting the growing need for an environmentally friendly energy source, adding the overhaul operations took 160 working days and entailed over 8,800 orders to be addressed.

The official said that on average, overhaul operations of every platform had been reduced from 17 days in 2009 to 7 days in 2019.

In October, CEO of the Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Mohammad Meshkinfam said that Iran is planning to increase the volume of its daily output from the South Pars gas field, which the country shares with Qatar, by 50 million cubic meters per day.