Seyed Abdoljalil Razavi told PIN the design of North Pars plan had been approved by the government’s Infrastructure Committee and the cabinet had yet to ratify it.
Razavi said North Pars field had a 16 thousand square kilometer area, extending along the towns of Dayyer, Dashti, and Tangestan.
He added the development operations would start soon and immediately after the cabinet gave the green light to the ceding of lands.
North Pars gas field is located 58 km off South Pars field, the world’s largest gas reserve. The field holds about 80 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas and has the capacity to produce 431 billion cubic meters of gas per day.
According to the plan, North Pars gas field will be developed in four phases and the produced gas is used for production of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Half of the produced LNG will belong to National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the other half will be owned by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).
CNOOC is in charge of investing in the upstream and downstream projects of the field.
Based on the estimate, over 16 billion dollars will be needed for the development of North Pars gas field, out of which five billion dollars will go for the upstream sector and 11 billion dollars will be invested in downstream projects – LNG plants.
North Pars is an offshore gas field, whose facilities are located in the southern part of Mond River of Dayyer and in the northern part of Dashti.
The field is to produce about 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas in each phase of the development plan.
BIGGEST INVESTOR
China has been the biggest foreign investor in Iran during 2000-2007 followed by France and Germany, according to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) data on foreign investments in the Islamic state by major industrial countries.
China, Iran’s largest trade partner, invested at least $101.74 billion in the country during the seven years.
Reuters quoted the U.S.-based conservative think thank as saying that the information was obtained from corporate reports and websites, periodicals, and other databases.
The Asian giant’s investments in petrochemical, gas, and oil industries totaled $96.7 billion during the period.
To fuel its over 11.9 percent economic growth, the nation of 1.3 billion people is buying all the oil it can from world markets and through bilateral energy development deals with producers and exporters in the Middle East and Africa.
China is the world’s second largest oil consumer.
Iran with the world’s second-largest known oil reserves is an important energy supplier for China and has signed multibillion-dollar energy contracts with that country in the past two years.
The latest of such investments in Iran’s oil and gas development projects was made last Sunday.
National Iranian Oil Company and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., Sinopec, signed a two-billion-dollar agreement for the development of onshore Yadavaran oilfield in southern Khuzestan Province.
Chinese investors also invested $620 million in banking, finance, export credit agencies; $3.38 billion in construction, power, and energy and $1.08 billion in the transportation sector.
France, the second investor in Iran among industrialized nations, invested at least $29.9 billion during 2000-2007 of which $18.5 billion are in petrochemical, gas, and oil industries.
French oil giant Total is among major European companies to have undertaken projects in the country’s oil and gas sectors.
French entrepreneurs invested $9.2 billion in banking, finance, export credit agencies; $1.15 billion in construction, power, and energy; $480 million in telecommunications and $600 million in the transportation sector.
Germany invested $25.4 billion in Iran during the seven years, of which $9.82 is in petrochemical, gas, and oil fields and $2.14 billion in banking, finance, and export credit agencies.
Investments in construction, power, and energy sectors totaled $3.38 billion, telecommunications $245 million and transportation $9.86.
The report added that the biggest Germany-Iran project is $9.14-billion deal in 2007 to construct a Maglev railway line to connect the capital Tehran to the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Italy, Iran’s third trade partner, invested $24.7 billion, while country’s second trade partner Japan made close to $16.9 billion in investments.
Russian, British, and American investors made $3.75 billion, $12.7 billion, and $3.6 billion investments respectively.