TEHRAN, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Monday officially started gas production at Phase 11 of the South Pars field located in its southern waters, the official news agency IRNA reported.
The announcement was made in an inauguration ceremony held in the southern port city of Asaluyeh in the presence of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, said the report.
At the ceremony, Raisi said the development project of Phase 11 is being fully implemented by domestic experts, according to a statement published on the website of his office.
Also speaking at the ceremony, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji said developing the phase through domestic capabilities has helped the country save 800 million U.S. dollars in foreign currency reserves.
According to local media reports, once fully operational, Phrase 11 will yield 56 million cubic meters of gas per day from 24 wells, compared to the current between 10 and 15 million cubic meters from four wells.
The phase will also produce 1 million tons of ethane and 1 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas once fully developed, generating 5 billion dollars in revenues per year and raising Iran's gross domestic product by one percent, IRNA quoted CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr as saying.
Hailing Iran's advances in the energy sector, Raisi also noted at the ceremony that Iran is now capable of exporting technical and engineering services in the oil sector to other states, referring to several agreements recently inked with South Africa and Venezuela and related interactions with Uganda.
South Pars is by far the world's largest natural gas field shared between Iran and Qatar. It is divided into 24 phases, and Phase 11 is its last phase near the Iran-Qatar joint water frontier in the Gulf.
