Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has approved a $5 billion credit line for Iran's Oil Ministry, which sets aside $4.3 billion for the development of projects in Iran's South Pars oil and natural gas field, which is under joint development with Qatar.
Iran is developing 13 phases of the massive natural gas field, as by 2013 Qatar is projecting massive exports from its development. Last year Iran signed contracts with domestic companies worth $21 billion for the development of the first 8 phases of South Pars.
According to international energy experts, Iran has 137.6 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and 29.61 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves, but development of the latter have been somewhat stymied due to U.S. and United Nations sanctions, Iran's Fars News Agency reported.
Three months ago the National Iranian Oil Company announced the discovery of yet another large deposit of crude oil and natural gas in the South Pars field, which NOIC geologists estimated would increase Iran's crude and gas condensate reserves by one billion barrels.
The South Pars natural gas field reserves are currently estimated at 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensates.
By. Joao Peixe, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com
Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com More