Qatar well ahead of Iran in tapping gas field

Tehran Times -- Qatar extracts as much as three times natural gas more than Iran from the South Pars gas field. So, investments should be directed toward developing the South Pars phases in order to compensate shortcomings, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company stated.

The gap between Iran and Qatar in exploitation from the giant joint South-Pars gas field is becoming larger day by day, Khabaronline Persian language news website reported in October.

While Iran’s daily revenue from gas condensate was about $30 million, the Qatari side is exploiting 1 million barrel per day worth $120 million.

The development plans of Qatar for the gas field will increase its gas exploitation to 250 to 270 billion cubic meters per year which will deliver 77 million tons of gas condensates. Qatar has several long term contracts with Japan and Korea for delivering the commodity.

The total revenue of Qatar in the current year would reach $37 billion making of the tiny country the LNG exporter number one worldwide; covering 28 percent of global demand.

Oil minister Rostam Qasemi has ordered all the contractors of the South Pars gas field development projects to work round the clock in three shifts to complete development of all the South Pars phases.

Iran has attached the priority on boosting gas production capacity from its joint oilfields with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Qasemi said, the IRNA news agency reported.

Iran sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia and is trying to grow its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in its South Pars gas field.

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.