Iran begins extraction of natural gas from an offshore rig at South Pars, the largest gas field in the world which is shared between Iran and Qatar, said the country's official media.
The extraction of gas will add some 14.2 million cubic meters a day to its current output of more than 800 million cubic meters a day, it said.
Mohammad-Mehdi Tavasolipour, an oil ministry contractor, said that production from the third drilling rig at Phase 14 of South Pars will be transferred through a five-kilometer pipeline to a refinery in the adjacent Phase 12 of South Pars.
“As cold season draws near and the country needs winter fuel, the 14B rig came on line based on a pre-existing schedule to meet a part of the growing demand for gas,” said Tavassolipoour.
The start of production at the new rig in the South Pars would bring Iran’s output from the offshore section of the giant gas field to 42 mcm (1.5 billion cubic feet) a day. Total production from South Pars is planned to reach 650 mcm by March as Iran seeks to completely outdo Qatar in the shared gas field.
It comes nearly six months after Iran successfully installed the drilling rig, a super-size structure hailed at the time as a sign of Iran’s capability to counter the harsh American sanctions on the country’s energy sector.
The South Pars/North Dome field is a natural gas condensate field located in the Gulf.