The fourth phase of Qatar’s South Pars development was made operational recently, producing 22 million cubic meters of gas per day.

Following inauguration of the fourth phase, Qatar’s gas production from the joint South Pars field will come to be 2.3 times that of Iran hitting, standing 115 million cubic meters per day.

Qatar has divided its development project for South Pars into seven phases. The first phase was made operational in 1991 producing 22 million cubic meters of gas per day; the second phase was made operational in 1996 producing 7 million cubic meters of gas per day; and the third phase came on-stream in 1999 producing 14 million cubic meters of gas per day.

It should be noted that production from the second phase, which started in 1996, gradually increased and reached 42 million cubic meters of gas per day in 2002. Production from the third phase started at 14 million cubic meters of gas per day and has now reached 28 million cubic meters gas a day.

Phases 5 and 6 are projected to become operational in 2006 producing 22 million cubic meters and 28 million cubic meters of gas per day respectively. Production from the sixth phase will increase by 100% after one year to hit 56 million cubic meters in 2007 when production from the seventh phase will also start at 22 million cubic meters a day.

Qatar started production from the South Pars field, which is shared with Iran, in 1991 and has; so far, produced about 200 billion cubic meters of gas from the field. The country’s gas production from the field is expected to hit 240 million cubic meters per day amounting to 87 billion cubic meters per year.

Iran started production from phases 2 and 3 of its development project only last year, that is, more than 10 years after Qatar’s first instance of production. At present, phases 2 and 3 of Iran’s development project produce 50 million cubic meters of gas per day.