“Developing the first phase of Kish Gas Field is on the POGC agenda and progress has been good so far,” Mohammad Meshkinfam said.
According to the POGC public relations office, the company, a subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Company, is commissioned to develop the Kish field, the second largest in the Persian Gulf after South Pars.
Located 30km east of Lavan Island, the giant field's development plan includes three phases, Financial Tribune reported.
In the first phase, so far 13 wells have been drilled but production has not begun.
“When the pipes are laid, 28.3 million cubic meters of gas will be supplied to one of the destinations on a daily basis.”
Upon completion of all three phases, the field will produce 85 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.
As the world's fifth biggest offshore gas field, Kish reserves were discovered in 2006 and is believed to hold an estimated 1.9 trillion cubic meters of natural gas in situ of which 1.4 trillion cubic meters are recoverable. It also contains more than 500 million barrels of gas condensates.
Unlike South Pars that is jointly owned with Qatar, Kish is fully inside Iranian maritime borders near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
China Talks
Speaking about other POGC projects, Meshkinfam said negotiations with the Chinese are still underway regarding the development of South Pars Phase 11.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.
More than $72 billion has been spent on the venture since work started in 24 phases.
China National Petroleum Corp became the dominant investor in plans for expansion of SP, after France’s Total withdrew from the project last summer under increasing pressure from the United States.
However, the Chinese also left recently probably due to the reimposition of the US sanctions.
The US reimposed restrictions on Iran's oil industry and banks last year after President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal Iran had signed with western powers in 2015.
Iran rejected a request from the CNPC to suspend operations in phase 11, but talks were underway with them over completion of the phase.
Narrowing Differences
Meshkinfam further said that Iran is still negotiating with Indian on the Farzad B Field development project.
New Delhi and Tehran are trying to narrow differences over investments and the gas price from Farzad B since its discovery by Indian companies led by ONGC, the foreign investment arm of India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp, in 2008.
Located in the Persian Gulf, the field has estimated reserves of 362 trillion cubic meters of gas.