Iran will quadruple output from joint oilfields

TEHRAN, Jan.4 (MNA) - Iran is currently extracting some 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from oilfields shared with neighboring countries. However, plans are underway to boost the output to 950,000 bpd by 2015 (end of the fifth five-year development plan), an official at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) announced on Tuesday. Abdolmohammad Delparish added that all development plans related to the joint oilfields will be launched in the current Iranian calendar year, which ends on March 19, 2012. The NIOC managing director Ahmad Qalebani has said that Iran’s daily oil and gas outputs should respectively increase to 5 million barrels and 1.47 billion cubic meters by 2015. Qalebani announced in November that 20 contracts will be signed by the end of the current Iranian calendar year to develop joint oilfields. Iran has attached priority to boosting gas production capacity from its joint oilfields with Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi has ordered all contractors of the South Pars gas field development projects to work round the clock in three shifts to complete development of all phases, especially the phases 12, 15, 16, 17 and 18. The South Pars gas field is shared by Iran and Qatar. The Iranian share, which is divided into 29 phases, has about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight percent of the total world reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources. Iran sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia and is trying to grow its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in its South Pars gas field.