Tehran [Iran], August 24 (ANI): Iran has discovered a new gas field in southern Fars Province containing an estimated 7,500 billion cubic feet of gas, Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said, according to Iranian news agency IRIB.
On Sunday, Paknejad said, “Seven thousand five hundred billion cubic feet of gas have been discovered, and considering a recovery rate of 73 per cent, it is possible to extract 5 thousand seven hundred billion cubic feet of gas.”
He said the recoverable volume was equivalent to one block of the South Pars gas field and could supply gas for 15 years.
“This amount of gas is equivalent to one block of South Pars, which can supply gas for 15 years,” he said.
Paknejad said the newly discovered gas was sweet, which would help reduce development and operating costs.
“This volume of gas has the special characteristic of being sweet, which reduces both development and operating costs,” he said.
He added that the discovery also includes gas condensate, which he said had created significant new wealth for the country.
“In addition to this volume of gas, there is also a volume of gas condensate that has brought tens of billions of dollars of new wealth to the country,” Paknejad said.
The development comes as, meanwhile, on Saturday, SHANA, the news agency of Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum, reported that the recovery of production capacity at the Phase 14 refinery in the South Pars gas field was 70 per cent complete and was expected to be finished by the end of the Iranian calendar year.
Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) CEO Touraj Dehghani said reconstruction work began immediately after the refinery was hit during the “12-day war”. Three damaged trains were restored to production in less than 10 days, he said.
“Given the round-the-clock efforts and detailed planning, the final damaged train will return to production by the end of the year,” Dehghani said.
Dehghani said POGC and the National Iranian Oil Company were assigned responsibility for rebuilding the third and fifth South Pars refineries, which sustained the heaviest damage among four affected facilities.
He said securing the sites and clearing debris at the two refineries were completed in less than two months.
“Despite the high risks involved, the work was completed without any accidents,” Dehghani said.
“Initial estimates indicated that fully rebuilding the facilities would take at least three years, but intensive planning and alternative execution methods are being used to bring some trains back online by the end of the year and complete the overall reconstruction within two years,” he said.
“Private companies, domestic contractors, financial institutions and banks have been mobilised to accelerate the work and make the most efficient use of available resources and time,” Dehghani said.
The updates come as Trump on Wednesday announced what he called an “Economic D-Day” campaign against Iran, describing it as the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country.”
Trump said the campaign would amount to “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale” and called on US allies to join Washington in isolating Iran.
Trump also said Washington had “very draconian sanctions” available against Iran and indicated that additional measures could be announced.
“We have things that we could sanction. We have very draconian sanctions, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said while addressing technology leaders.
He said Washington would determine its next course of action based on developments, adding that the situation could either result in a significant fall in oil prices or lead to a continuation of the existing measures.
On Thursday (local time), US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also warned Iran of the “toughest sanctions in history”, saying Washington will pursue coordinated economic isolation against Tehran and seek to “collapse this regime”, Al Jazeera reported.
He urged US allies to join Washington in isolating Tehran, claiming that the measures would weaken Iran’s ability to project influence globally.
Bessent added that a media conference on Monday, i.e August 24, would reveal “exactly what we’re going to do” against Iran. (ANI)
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