Local and foreign potentials will all be employed to increase productivity. Development of the joint South Pars Oil and Gas Fields increases in the productivity rate in existing oil and gas fields and promotes the capacity of downstream industries are the main objectives of Iran’s Ministry of Oil.

Iran’s Oil Ministry has given priority to production increases and has invited leading international companies to achieve its objectives.

Iran has made the largest investment ever for the development of the South Pars Gas Field and such a huge investment is tipped to create an industrial renaissance in the south of the country.

Akbar Torkan, Deputy Minister of Oil

Development of Darkhovein and Azadegan oil and gas fields are on the oil ministry’s agenda, the ministry in planning, in addition, to increase productivity in 24 oil and gas fields throughout the country.

Some 120 million tons of various gas and oil derivatives are subject to national consumption annually by industrial units, power plants and households, 50 million tons of which are made up of oil products and the remaining 70 million tons are in liquid gas form.

Had increases in demand for oil products in the country not been met by alternative gas production within the last 10 years, we could only export a small portion of OPEC quotas today and our oil revenue would be drastically reduced.

Plans have been made to develop the South Pars Gas Field, up to 28 phases, and each phase will add 25 million tons to Iran’s gas production capacity.

Eight phases of South Pars gas field have been designed for production of gas for export, four phases for LNG and GLT and four phases for production of sweet gas and piped dispatch.

Gas produced in five phases of South Pars will be injected into oil wells and 12 other phases will be developed for household consumption.

Contracts have been signed for development of 10 phases so far, two of which have already come on stream.

Four more phases are at tendering stage. Authorization for development of 14 phases of South Pars Gas Field have been obtained and upon the budget approval bill by Majlis (Islamic consultative Assembly), tenders will be issued for these 14 new phases.

Production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) requires advanced technology and marketing, and negotiations with companies interested in taking part in this sector are underway.

Replacing the present buyback contracts with direct investment requires consultation between Majlis and the government and in case of differences, the issue should be referred to the State Expediency Council.

Based on Iran’s third development plan and emphasis on privatization in oil industry, the ministry has identified and prioritized the affiliated units marked for privatization.

Privatization will include existing units and investment by Iranian and foreign private sectors on construction and execution of new projects.

Investment by some foreign companies such as Shell, Sasol and Sabic in the petrochemical industry, floating some petrochemical plant’s shares on Tehran’s stock exchange, transferring a number of motor oil production units and authorizing the construction of oil refineries to the private sector are some of the steps being taken in the privatization course.