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Iran to invest US$30 billion in oil and natural gas production

11.05.2011 by Hassan Shahin

Iran announced Wednesday that it will invest this year US$ 30 billion to raise the level of its oil and natural gas production.

A local news agency said Iran’s “Five-Year Development Plan has allocated investment of US$150 billion to develop oil and gas fields. it planned to invest US$30 billion this year in order to raise the level of production of oil and natural gas in the country.”

The agency quoted Deputy Iranian Oil Minister Ahmad Qalaa Bani while inspecting projects under construction in the South Pars field as saying that “This field is of great strategic importance where important projects were implemented during the past two years.”

The South Pars field boasts 47 percent of the total gas reserves of Iran, which constitute about 8 percent of the total gas reserves in the world.

So far, 10 stages of the field reached full production phase. During the current year, there are plans to launch stages 15, 16, 17 and 18.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the National Iranian Gas Company Jawad Auchi said there are plans to sign the initial documents for the deal of transfer Iranian natural gas to Syria, Lebanon and Europe via the territory of Iraq. Auchi conveyed that “talks were held last week in Baghdad between officials from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq and Syria which resulted in an agreement by the three countries on the export of Iranian gas from South Pars gas field to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to Europe across the Mediterranean” .