TEHRAN, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said Sunday that Iran's South Pars and other shared gas fields will generate an annual income of 400 billion U.S. dollars for the country after their completion, Press TV reported.
The Iranian minister said 770 million cubic meters of gas can be extracted from South Pars field after the completion of all of its phases, according to the report.
"With this amount of gas extraction from the world's biggest shared gas field, Iran's gas production will equal that of Qatar's, " said Qasemi without elaborating on the time of the projects' completion.
"We currently have 27 discovered shared fields, 24 of which are either active or are being developed," the Iranian oil minister was quoted as saying.
The South Pars/North Dome field is a natural gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the field holds an estimated 1, 800 trillion cubic feet (51 trillion cubic meters) of in-situ natural gas and some 50 billion barrels (7.9 billion cubic meters) of natural gas condensates.
This gas field covers an area of 9,700 square km, of which 3, 700 square km is in Iranian territorial waters called South Pars and 6,000 square km is in Qatari territorial waters referred to as North Dome.
Although Iran possesses the world's largest gas reserves, it has struggled for years to develop its oil and gas resources due to the withdrawal of foreign investors from its energy sector under Western pressure.
The European Union, the United States and some other countries have imposed oil and natural gas embargo as part of the sanctions aiming to pressure Tehran into resuming talks on its nuclear program. They have also slashed tough banking sanctions to limit Iran's ability to sell oil and natural gas, which accounts for 80 percent of its foreign revenue.
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