More than 400 Iranian companies are taking part in the development of the South Pars gas field through supplying equipment to related projects, the Shana News Agency quoted South Pars Gas Company’s managing director Ali-Akbar Shabanpour as saying.
He added that the company has placed the priority on providing the necessary equipment through domestic suppliers, aiming to attain self-sufficiency in this field of industry.
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.
On November 30, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said that the country has overcome the tough economic sanctions and the oil industry is heading toward development, IRIB reported.
Many development projects are underway and is projected that $150 billion will be invested in the oil sector, he added.
By March 2015, natural gas production will reach 1.4 billion cubic meters from 600 million cubic meters, Qasemi said.
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.
U.S. sanctions entered into force on June 28, while EU bans on Iranian oil imports came into force on July 1.
In October, the EU approved another major package of economic sanctions on Iran.
In July, Qasemi said that although the West has imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil sector with the goal of toppling the Islamic establishment, the country’s oil exports will never be halted because oil consuming countries need Iranian crude.
Qasemi said in April that at least $30 billion will be invested in the domestic oil industry this year.
He added that a major portion of the sum will be allocated to the South Pars gas field projects.
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, December 10, 2012