Iran plans to start drilling the first well at a long-delayed phase of the giant South Pars gas field before the end of the year, oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said.
"We hope that gas be transferred to onshore facilities within a year," he said.
Gas deliveries in 2021 would be a boon for Tehran considering it has developed phase 11 alone after China's state-owned CNPC pulled out of the $4.88bn project last October.
Total — which led the consortium that won the contract for phase 11 in July 2017 — expected to produce as much as 2bn ft³/d (20.6bn m³/yr) of gas from the phase and had hoped to begin delivering to Iran's domestic market in 2021. It was forced to withdraw in August 2018 after failing to secure a sanctions waiver from Washington.
CNPC took Total's 50.1pc share in the project and was named operator with an 80.1pc stake in November 2018, with Iranian state-owned NIOC subsidiary Petropars holding the remaining 19.9pc. Petropars has since assumed full responsibility for the project and started work to build one of two offshore platforms to deliver 500mn ft³/d of gas. Work on the platform jackets was meant to be completed in March but was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Total's original contract envisaged a two-stage development, delivering 335bn m³ of sour-rich gas and 315bn m³ of light-sweet gas over a 20-year period. The first stage involved the drilling of 30 wells and the installation of two wellhead platforms, which will be connected to existing onshore treatment facilities by two subsea pipelines. This stage is within the scope of Petropars' activities.
Still, questions remain over Petropars' ability to take on the whole project. The second stage, which involves the construction of offshore compression facilities to maintain pressure levels in the reservoir, could prove a step too far.
South Pars field is shared with Qatar, where it is known as the North Field. Iran's portion is divided into 24 phases, and since 2013 Iran has installed a total 26 offshore platforms, drilled 228 wells, laid 2,160km of undersea pipelines and commissioned 30 processing trains, Zanganeh said. Production has risen to 24.7bn ft³/d from 9.9bn ft³/d in 2013.
