Iran inaugurates last phase of mega-gas field

TEHRAN — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi inaugurated on Monday the last phase of the South Pars gas field, one of the world's largest natural gas condensate field and the country's biggest.

Iran shares the gas field with energy giant Qatar and there are 24 platforms on the side of the Islamic republic which has been developing it in the Gulf since the 1990s.

Oil Minister Javad Owji said around 50 million cubic metres of gas will be extracted daily from phase 11 of the project "after the completion of the wells", during a ceremony in the southern port city of Asalouyeh broadcast live on state television.

Raisi meanwhile complained that foreign companies, including French energy giant Total, "had not fulfilled their obligations to complete the 11th phase of South Pars", leaving Iranian experts to do the job.

Total was due to develop phase 11 of South Pars along with China's National Petroleum Corporation and an Iranian firm, under a 2017 deal worth $4.8 billion.

A year later Total withdrew from the project after then US president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out from the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement and reimposed sanctions on Iran. In 2019, Tehran announced that China had also abandoned the project.

Iran has the world's second largest gas reserves, after Russia, and the world's fourth largest oil reserves