Iran's Gas Output from South Pars Could Overtake Qatar's by 2018

Iran’s Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zangeneh has said that his country will overtake Qatar in production of natural gas from South Pars field by 2018.  

However, he emphasized that Qatar will still be ahead from the viewpoint of overall production given that it started the producing of gas from the field sooner than Iran, Press TV reported. 

The South Pars gas field, located in the Persian Gulf is shared by Iran and Qatar. Iran calls it South Pars gas field and Qatar has named it North Dome field. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the field holds an estimated 1,800 trillion cubic feet (51 trillion cubic metres) of in-situ natural gas and some 50 billion barrels (7.9 billion cubic metres) of natural gas condensates.

According to Press TV, Zangeneh blamed US-led sanctions on Iran for slowing the progress of Iranian oil and gas projects. However, he emphasized, Iran has been able to push ahead many projects – specifically in South Pars – in face of the sanctions.  

“Currently, phases 12, 15 and 16 and also a part of phase 17 have been put on stream,” he said. “Over a period of less than two years, seven production platforms were launched simultaneously.”