Addressing a ceremony to officially start installation of the jacket of Platform B of Phase 11 Project of South Pars gas field on Thursday, the official said: "What is important in the current situation is that we will not stop operating under the sanctions and continue all our projects despite the sanctions especially in the joint fields, Goreh-Jusk Project, West Karoon Projects and the petrochemical sector."

He said Iran was currently recovering 700 million cubic meters of gas from South Pars Gas Field, which is shared with Qatar in Persian Gulf waters. “This year, 50 million cubic meters will be added to this amount.”

Zangeneh said: "Fortunately, for the first time under this administration, what the Iranian nation wanted in terms of our share in this field has been achieved."

He noted that much of the development of the South Pars joint gas field had been achieved in recent years in face of the embargoes, adding: "Of course, we were able to import many of the goods we needed in the short period that the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal) was in force."

The official further noted that the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) had signed a contract for the development of South Pars Phase 11 with an international consortium of Total, CNPCI and Petropars back in July 2017, however, the French and Chinese companies pulled out of the deal in the wake of the reimposed US sanctions on Iran later in 2018.  

Zangeneh said Phase 11 was the last South Pars phase to be developed, adding the consortium spent 100 million dollars in the project, prior to Total and CNPC’s departure from the plan. Petropars is now developing the $4b project alone. Phase 11 is being developed for 56 mcm/d of gas production capacity.

Gas recovery from Phase 11, 14 months later

The Minister of Petroleum stated that installation of the jacket of Platform 11B of South Pars Phase 11 development project will begin today, (Thursday, May 21, 2020) on the Iran-Qatar sea border, adding the jacket would have no topside and after installation of the jacket, drilling operations for 5 offshore wells would begin which would bring production from the phase to 12 mcm/d in a matter of 14 months in the first phase of the plan.