TEHRAN, Feb. 09 (Shana) -- Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said development of South Pars offshore gas field is the top priority of the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum and the Rouhani administration.

"Development of the field is an unparalleled achievement by the petroleum industry and the Islamic Republic," said Zangeneh, adding because of the backwardness of the projects in recent years, "we decided to develop the 17 remaining phases as a top priority."

He said phases 15 and 16 of the field were already productive before their official inauguration, because, "we decided not to officially launch any projects until they are fully operational and all their units have come on-stream," he said.

The Iranian official said phases 18 and 17 of the gas field are producing natural gas and are feeding the national gas distribution network.
He said the two phases will be officially inaugurated by mid-2016, saying, "We would have launched 4 South Pars phases including phases 19 (two phases), 20 and 21 had it not been for financial shortcomings; the phases will come on-stream next year."

Zangeneh said Petroleum Ministry has planned to launch the last 10 phases of the gas field, phase 14 excluded, before Rouhani leaves office in 2017 which would require an investment of $30bn.
"We could launch new phases and raise the country's gas output under the worst conditions caused by the sanctions and oil price slump during the Rouhani Administration."

In 2013, 45% of the fuel consumed by power plants across the country were supplied by liquid fuel which the percentage fell to 27% for 2014 and to 17% in 2015 being replaced by natural gas. Liquid fuel can be fed to petrochemical plants instead to boost their output, he said.

Oil Output

He said the country is boosting is crude oil production capacity which will raise its exports as well.
He named development of West Karoun oil fields as the top priority of the Petroleum Ministry, saying that production from the fields will rise from 50 to 60,000b/d in 2013 (the year Rouhani took office as Iranian president) to over 300,000b/d by the time he lives office in his first term in 2017.

He further said production of crude oil from West Karoun oilfields will reach 200,000b/d by mid- 2017.

By SHANA