Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Roknoddin Javadi said the country will opt primarily for the indigenous contractors to start developing the giant gas field’s phase 11.
Javadi, who also serves as the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said the timeline for the development of phase 11 was still unspecified, but assured that Iranian companies will be the first choice to carry out the project.
He further noted that the whole South Pars phases, whose development has already begun, will definitely become fully operational by the Iranian year of 1396 (March 21, 2017- March 20, 2018).
The South Pars gas field, with a total of 24 phases, is located in the Persian Gulf straddling the maritime border between Iran and Qatar. It is estimated that the Iranian section of the field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of condensates in place.
South Pars is part of a wider gas field that is shared with Qatar. The larger field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran's territorial waters (South Pars) in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, referred to as the North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.