“Of the two last platforms at South Pars gas field, one was installed today and the next platform will be installed before (March 20),” Iran oil minister,  Zanganeh said, according to Reuters.

“And so we will have all the platforms of the 27 phases of South Pars, which will enable us to produce more than one billion cubic meters of gas per day.”

South Pars, which Qatar calls North Field, is the world’s largest gas field and is shared between Iran and Qatar.

Separately, Zanganeh said that coronavirus is to blame for price fluctuations in the oil market and economy in the globe as well.

Several countries in the region have closed their borders with Iran and put in place air travel restrictions after people infected with coronavirus arrived from the Islamic Republic by flights or so.

Despite the air travel restrictions, Zanganeh said that he would attend a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna next week using Iran Air flights.

Mohammad Meshkinfam said that the current daily consumption of natural gas in Iran is nearly equal to half of Europe’s, reported Press TV.

He said that South Pars, the world’s largest gas field, located in the Persian Gulf and shared with Qatar, is responsible for nearly 70 percent of Iran’s total gas consumption.

Meshkinfam said dozens of drilling rigs deployed at various phases of the South Pars were operating at full capacity to respond to the growing demand for heat energy in Iran.

He said his company was prepared to restore production at any of those drilling rigs that might face disruptions due to technical problems that might occur during the winter months.

The government should come up with new solutions to control excessive use of gas in the country, Meshkinfam said.

The surge of production at South Pars gas field comes after Iran started extracting more than 28 mcm per day of gas from two new platforms installed at phases 14 and 23 of the gas field.

Meshkinfam said production from another rig at Phase 24, known as Platform 24B, would start within the next two weeks.

He said a “sail-out” operation for Platform 14D, the last of four rigs planned for Phase 14 of South Pars, was now over and engineers were waiting for better weather conditions to install the rig in the Persian Gulf waters.

Iran has various gas resources and 95 percent of the population has direct access to the gas network, Zanganeh said, reported IRNA.

No country in the world has as many natural gas vehicles as Iran, he boasted.

Iran has discovered new huge oilfield with an estimated 53 billion barrels of crude oil in the southern province of Khuzestan.

The oilfield named Namavaran is one of the biggest ones discovered in Iran, the minister noted.

The field has an area of 2,400 square kilometers and is about 80 meters deep, Zanganeh explained.

The Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) CEO said in November that daily gas extraction from the South Pars Gas Field would reach 680 million cubic meters (mcm) when new platforms become operational.

Mohammad Meshkinfam added the current gas extraction from the field, jointly shared with Qatar, stands at 630 mcm per day.

According to the plans drawn up for the year to March 2020, domestic companies are assiduously implementing development projects in phases 13, 14, 22 and 24, he added.

The managing director stressed that since SP is a joint gas field, it is of great importance to focus on raising gas extraction from it, adding among the company’s major goals in the year to March 2020 is to complete the development projects of the offshore sections of the phases 13, 14, 22 and 24.

He added gas extracted by the two main platforms of the phases 23 and 24B will be processed and injected into the nationwide network after the completion of hookup and commissioning operations in the two phases.

After coming on stream, the new platforms of the phases 22-24 will raise daily gas production in the field by 28 mcm (one billion cubic feet).

Describing the progress of the operations for development of South Pars Phase 14 as favorable, Meshkinfam said at present, platform B14 of the offshore section of the phase is fully operational and as soon as the completion of a five-kilometer pipeline between phases 14 and 12 becomes operational, it will begin gas extraction.

He noted that the pipeline will begin gas transfer within two weeks.

In May 2018, President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed between Iran and the P5+1 in July 2015, and reimposed Washington’s unilateral sanctions on Tehran.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Iran Daily, Ali Bakhtiar, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s Energy Committee, added this will be accomplished in light of the completion of the development projects of a number of the phases of the South Pars (SP) Gas Field in the Persian Gulf by the same date.

Iran jointly owns the field with Qatar, which calls its part of the world’s largest gas reserve, the North Dome, and recently managed to overtake the Arab country in extraction from the joint field.

He described by developing South Pars fields, Iran’s being ahead of Qatar in gas production from the field as a great achievement, while being under strict US sanctions, adding that the country had accomplished this over the past 12 months while none of the world’s major companies were cooperating with it.

“Iran managed to get past Qatar in gas extraction from SP while relying on domestic companies’ capabilities. This comes as the Qataris have been cooperating all the while with all of the world’s leading companies in production from the field.”

He noted that Iran sits on the world’s biggest hydrocarbon (oil and gas together) reserves.

“At present, no country can officially purchase oil from Iran as the US has ended waivers from its unilateral sanctions for customers of Iranian crude. Nevertheless, even under the present difficult circumstances, we have certain techniques to bypass the sanctions. We are currently continuing our oil exports although at a slower pace and in a smaller volume [compared to the pre-sanctions era].”

Bakhtiar said the US has failed to make its dream of reducing Iran’s oil exports to zero come true, noting that in November 2018, when the white House announced that it would bring Iran’s overseas sales of crude to zero, “we put our crude cargo on sale on Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX) and managed to sell our oil in one of the most transparent markets.”

Elaborating further on Iran’s strategy of selling oil through IRENEX, he added that over the past few years, the ground became prepared for, first, selling petrochemicals and, then, offering oil byproducts.

Offering oil on the domestic stock exchange began following the achievement to sell oil byproducts on IRENEX, the lawmaker said, describing the experience as successful.

Turning to problems involved in offering crude oil on IRENEX, he said the drawbacks can be overcome, making the continuation of the process definitely possible.

“We are required to use the domestic capital market to sell oil, particularly, as Iranians are willing to purchase crude through the stock exchange.”

It is interesting for them to be able to use their capital for buying crude oil on the stock exchange, he said.

Bakhtiar said the Iranian Parliament’s Energy Committee is studying and exploring different techniques and strategies for selling oil and will welcome and support new plans and ideas to this end.