Iran Min. : SP Gas Fields To Yield 1.4bn cm Of Gas Daily In Next 3 Yrs

Tehran, Nov 5, IRNA – Minister of Oil Rostam Qassemi said on Sunday that daily gas production from South Pars gas field stands at 600 million cubic meters, which will rise to 1.4 billion cubic meters in the next three years. Qassemi told the 8th International Iranplast Exhibition on Sunday that 400,000 barrels of gas condensates are produced at South Pars gas field per day, which will rise to more than one million barrels per day in the coming years. Noting that 17 percent of the world's gas reserves lie in Iran, Qassemi said petrochemical industry will soon replace the wood and steel industries, given its advantages and its wide-scale applications in the transportation sector. He said 70 petrochemical units will be set up in Iran. The project has shown five to 95 percent progress and once operational, national petrochemical production capacity will rise to over 100 million tons, he added. Speaking at a meeting with board of directors of oil industry's OAP syndicate, Qassemi said this year investments would rise in the oil industry considerably, reaching as much as 40 billion dollars. He referred to the development of shared oil and gas fields as a top priority of his ministry, and said development of all South Pars gas field phases is underway and upon completion will increase the country's revenues as much as the value of six million barrels of oil per day. "Except for two or three fields whose situation will be determined by the end of the current Iranian year on March 2013, we have made the decisions for all other shared oil and gas fields," Qassemi told the meeting. "Last year as much as 30 billion dollars was invested in the oil industry, which is an unprecedented figure," he said, and added that while total investments stood at 13 to 15 billion dollars in 2010, the figure would rise to as much as 40 billion dollars this year. "Parliament has devised new appropriate methods for financing oil industry projects including facilitating access to National Development Fund and energy funds resources of domestic banks," Qassemi noted. The minister further laid emphasis on boosting domestic manufacturing, and said, "The oil industry is involved in drafting a specific document that includes time-frames, coordination with scientific centers and commercial companies that is hoped to meet oil industry needs in short term." On the oil ministry's plans during the fifth five-year development plan up to 2015, Qassemi said Iran's oil and gas production capacity is planned to rise respectively to 5.5 million barrels and 1.4 billion cubic meters per day by 2015, while the production capacity of petrochemicals will rise to 100 million tons per year. He said the enemy plans to decelerate moving toward these goals by imposing sanctions, but despite all these obstacles the oil industry's projects are moving forward at a high speed./end