Iran leaps to complete world's biggest gas project
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangane says that Iran's gas production capacity will increase by about 200 million cubic meters in two years. Mehr News Agency quoted Zanganeh on Aug. 19 as saying that the development plan of the giant South Pars gas field is expected to be completed totally by the end of Iranian fiscal year of 1396 (March 20, 2018). The development plan of the South Pars gas field started in 1997, during the beginning of Mohammad Khatami's presidency. Five phases of the field came on stream at the time and physical progress of phases 6 to 10 surpassed 60 percent in 2005. But during two terms of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency (2005 to 2013) only 10 phases came on stream and the gross gas output of the phases 1 to 10 reached 285 million cubic meters per day. After Ahmadinejad's administration, phase 12 started early production in February 2014, and its daily production reached 25 million cubic meters per day on July 13. The joint South