Iranian firm inks $180m deal for South Pars drilling operations

TEHRAN,Jan.3(MNA)--Iran’s Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) signed a $180 million deal with a domestic firm, named Global Petrotec, for drilling exploratory wells in the South Pars gas field, the POGC head Mousa Souri told . According to the deal, which was inked in Tehran on Monday, some 6 kilometers of drilling should be carried out within 470 days to specify details on oil layers, define amounts of deposits and prepare master development plan (MDP) for the South Pars gas field. Iranian Oil minister Rostam Qasemi has ordered all the contractors of the South Pars gas field development projects to work round the clock in three shifts to complete development of all the South Pars phases. Iran has attached the priority on boosting gas production capacity from its joint oilfields with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Qasemi said. 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. 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.