Now Platform 23 is connected to the offshore refinery, and gas is transferred via a 100 kilometer subsea pipeline, the Oil Ministry news portal Shana reported at the weekend.
The three phases will daily produce 56 million cubic meters of natural gas, 50 mcm of methane, 2,900 tons of LPG, 2,750 tons of ethane, 75,000 barrels of gas condensates and 400 tons of sulfur, the manager said.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, covering 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, according to Financial Tribune.
“In the next step the platform will be connected to the satellite Platform 24B via a 7.5km pipeline,” Izadjoo said, and added that after completion of pipe-laying work, the phases will become fully operational in two months.
The giant gas field holds an estimated 39 trillion cubic meters of natural gas in place, of which 14 tcm is in Iranian territory and the rest in the tiny emirate of Qatar off the Persian Gulf.
Iran is developing the mega gas project in 24 phases. All of them, minus Phase 11, will be up and running by 2020. The field has produced 1.3 trillion cubic meters of gas since 2002 when the first phase was launched.
The field's current output is reported at 580 million cubic meters per day or 70% of the country's total demand.