Iran accelerates development of South-Pars oil, gas field

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad approved a $5bln credit line for the oil ministry in abroad, $4.3bln of which is for the development of projects at the South Pars oil and gas field.Iran is developing 13 phases of the gas field concurrently trying to catch up with the huge volume of exploitation by Qatar from the joint field by 2013. In 2010 Iran signed contracts with domestic companies over the development of 8 phases worth $21bln. Energy experts say that Iran has 137.6 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, and 29.61 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves. In June this year, The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) had announced discovery of another large deposit of crude oil and natural gas in the South Pars field in the Persian Gulf. It was estimated that the discovery would increase Iran\'s crude and gas condensate reserves by one billion barrels. The South Pars gas field is located in the Persian Gulf, north of Iran\'s maritime border with Qatar. The field\'s reserves are estimated at 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensates.