Iran completes South Pars Phase 11 four years ahead of schedule

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
28 Aug 2023 22:27
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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi inaugurates Phase 11 of the South Pars gas field, which is the world's largest holding 51 trillion cubic meters of natural gas.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrives at the Phase 11 platform of the South Pars field, in Iranian territorial waters, on August 28, 2023. (Iranian presidency)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi inaugurated phase 11 of the South Pars gasfield on Monday, which was built by local contractors.

The head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Mohsen Khojasteh Mehr revealed that the gasfield will have 24 wells to extract fossil fuels from and will generate $5 billion a year once it goes into full production.

"The development of South Pars Phase 11 is one of the NIOC’s most strategic and important plans and projects, which finally came online in the current government after a 20-year delay," he said.

The Iranian government had given the rights for the development of the field to France's TotalEnergies and China's National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). However, as former US President Donald Trump's administration pulled out of previous agreements made with Tehran, the two companies abandoned the project in 2018.

The project was then handed to local companies that worked under the umbrella of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

"We have said that we will work and cooperate with everyone around the world, but we are showing that if a company comes in and abandons the project midway, we won’t abandon it," the President announced on Monday after he arrived on the platform via helicopter from the Asaluyeh port in the southwestern Bushehr Province.

The Iranian President said the project has completed the Phase 11 milestone four years ahead of schedule, dealing a mighty blow to the companies that abandoned the deal back in 2018.

The South Pars/North Dome field, in which the platform that Rasi visited is located, is a natural gas condensate field located in the Gulf. The field is shared between Iran and Qatar and is the world's largest natural gas field, holding 51 trillion cubic meters of in-situ natural gas and around 50 billion barrels of natural gas condensates.

South Pars Phase 11 will produce 15 million cubic meters of gas per day before raising its output to 56 million cubic meters of gas, 50,000 barrels of gas condensate, and 750 metric tons of sulfur per day.

The gas from South Pars Phase 11 will be transferred to the onshore refinery of Phase 12, where extracted resources will be processed and transferred into Iran's national gas network.

Reports indicate that the 3,200-ton platform was transferred after buying a crane ship from Russia, which experts believe is an unprecedented and exceptional move.