Tehran : Gas production at Iran's giant offshore natural gas field South Pars will rise to 175 million cubic metres per day within the next two years, an energy official was quoted as saying yesterday.
Iran has the second biggest gas reserves in the world after Russia, but sanctions over its nuclear energy programme and other factors have slowed its development as a major exporter. It is unable to access the technology it needs to build LNG facilities.
"By the end of Iranian year 1391 [in the next two years] South Pars gas production capacity will increase to 175 million cubic metres per day," Ali Vakili, managing director of the Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC), told the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Vakili did not say how much of an increase this represents. Production at the field rose by nearly 30 per cent during the 2009-10 year, Iran's state Press TV reported last month, to around 59 billion cubic metres of processed gas for the full year, or around 162 million cubic metres per day.
"For developing South Pars we reached the conclusion that we should not wait for foreign companies because at the moment the capability to develop through domestic companies exists," Vakili said.
