National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a five-billion-dollar buy-back deal with Petropars Ltd. (PPL) for the development of Phase 11 of the massive offshore South Pars gas field.The Iranian company PPL is replacing China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) whose contract was terminated due to its foot-dragging on the development project.
Hadi Mirbaqeri, a PPL project manager, said the company has already proven its qualifications in the development of phases 12 and 19 of South Pars.
He added that the new contract involves construction and installation of two wellhead platforms, drilling 12 wells in each of the platforms, and construction of single buoy mooring (SBM) facilities for natural gas liquids exports.
Phase 11 of South Pars is being developed to produce two billion cubic feet a day of sour gas and 80,000 barrels a day of gas condensate.
CNPC agreed with NIOC in 2009 to develop the only South Pars phase whose fate had not been decided.
Iran commissioned the development of Phase 11 to CNPC after Frances Total and Malaysias Petronas pulled out.
Iran is currently producing 300 million cubic meters (mcm) per day of gas from South Pars.
The country, which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, has been trying to enhance its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in South Pars gas field.
The South Pars gas field, divided into 28 phases, is located in the Persian Gulf on the common border between Iran and Qatar. It is estimated that the field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of condensate.
By Press TV
The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.
