Qatar Signs $10B Contract To Develop Gas Field Shared With Iran

A $10 billion project has been agreed to develop a vast natural gas field shared between Qatar and Iran.

The deal was signed by QatarEnergy with French-owned Technip Energies for the scheme in the world’s largest natural gas field.

The Iranian part, known as South Pars, supplies 70% of Iran's gas.

In a statement on Tuesday, QatarEnergy stated that the project will include two giant liquefied natural gas (LNG) production lines, with an annual capacity of 16 million tons.

The company said the extra LNG capacity would increase the country's total production by 60 percent reaching 126 million tons by 2027.

The Russian war on Ukraine and sanctions imposed by Europe and the US on Moscow have increased global demand for Qatar's gas.

The rapid development of the Qatari part comes as the completion of the remaining phases of the Iranian part has been delayed for years.

Just to maintain current production, Iran needs to invest up to $50 billion in its gas fields, especially in the Persian Gulf offshore South Pars reserves shared with Qatar.

In Iran’s gas fields, as any other in the world, underground pressure that pushes the gas out declines over time, so necessitating modern technology to maintain production level. However, such equipment is only provided by a handful of Western energy giants and the sanctions against Iran are a barrier for them to invest.

Although Iran has the second-largest natural gas reserves in the world, holding more than 17 percent of global fields, the government has issued warnings of power cuts in winter, as power plants that lacked sufficient gas supplies were forced to switch to less efficient liquid fuels.