Iran, Qatar extraction of South Pars equalized

12 avril 2005

TEHRAN — Iran’s extraction of the huge gas field of South Pars will be soon equalized with that of Qatar through the inauguration of phases 4 and 5, said Akbar Torkan, the managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Co. on Monday.

“Iran already failed to extract gas in South Pars as much as Qatar did, but presently the two countries have equal production as a result of inauguration of phases 4 and 5 of the South Pars, determined to be carried out next Saturday in the presence of President Mohammad Khatami”, Torkan told ISNA.

He added that according to the plan, Iran will put Qatar behind in 2012 in producing gas when the current projects of the South Pars are complete.

Meanwhile, the managing director noted that Qatar has new and important projects for the next couple of years, which could lead to positive consequences for it.

In 2000, National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) delivered project of developing phases 4 and 5 of the South Pars to the consortium of the Italian Eni (60 percent), Petropars Co. (20 percent), and Nikoo Co. (20 percent) in buyback contracts.

The majority of the Iranian companies participated in construction operations of refineries of phases 4 and 5, as over 45 percent of the whole operation was implemented by the domestic companies.

Iran and Qatar which are jointly using the South Pars have launched serious competition on extracting it.

According to the latest reports, Iran has planned producing LNG from three phases of the South Pars as much as 35 million tons and has so far attained the primary agreements of purchasing 20 million tons of it. Furthermore, the country is currently seeking new ways of presenting Indian, Korean and European markets in order to purchase the rest 15 million tons of LNG.

Additionally, Iran’s recent agreement valued at $100b to export gas to China is among other successful efforts of the country to present the world gas markets and compete with Qatar in this regard.

Qatar has launched production in the South Pars since 1991 and has so far extracted 190 billion cu. m, which is more than Iran’s share by 6 times.