IRANIAN BANK TO INVEST $7 BLN IN SOUTH PARS GAS FIELD

The Managing Director of Bank Mellat, Iran’s biggest private bank, has announced that the institution will invest $7 billion in the development of South Pars gas field, Iran’s largest resource holding some 30 percent of the country’s total proved gas reserves.

Iran’s Shana news agency quoted Mohammad Reza Saroukhani as saying that some $5 billion will be invested in phases 20, 21, 22 and 23, while $2 billion will be put in phase 13 of South Pars.

It’s expected that some 125 million cubic meters of gas per day (mcm/d) will be produced from the mentioned phases in total.

Iran has inaugurated phases 1 to 10 to 2009 and commenced the phases 12, 15, 16, 17 and 17 with half production capacity in 2014. South Pars has been divided to 24 phases and currently produces less than 390 mcm/d of raw gas.

Managing-director of Pars Oil and Gas Company Ali-Akbar Shabanpour told Mehr News Agency that Qatar produces 1.6 times more gas than Iran from joint South Gas field. Iran planned to complete South Pars by 2018. After full implementation of this field, the country’s total gas production level will stand above 1.1 billion cubic meters per day. Currently Iran produces about 660 mcm/d in total. Iran reportedly needs $20 to $25 billion in investment to complete the South Pars project.

National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Planning Director Hassan Montazer Torbati told reporters today that Iran’s gas production in South Pars had increased by 22 billion cubic meters during the current fiscal year, which started on March 21th, 2014, leading to a 2.5 billion cubic meter gas trade balance.

Iran exports gas to Turkey and imports Turkmen gas.