Alireza Ebadi, acting director of development of phases 20 and 21 of the gas field, on Tuesday said drilling of 11 wells in Phase 21 has completed and currently work is underway to build the phase’s platform.

The platform is being built in Khorramshahr Yard, he said, adding that once completed, it will be loaded to be transferred to the gas field for installation.

According to the official, all of the pipelines of the two phases have been installed and are undergoing final tests.

The first unit of the phases’ refinery is also ready to come operational, he went on to say.

The South Pars gas field, whose development has been divided into 28 phases, is located in the Persian Gulf straddling the maritime border between Iran and Qatar.

The huge offshore field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.

It is estimated that the Iranian section of the field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of condensates in place.

A senior Iranian energy official said in June that Iran’s production of natural gas from the field – called the North Dome by Qatar – will surpass 500 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) once several ongoing projects are fully developed.