ASSALUYEH, Bushehr Province -- The first consignment of condensate gas weighing 40,000 tons was exported from the 2nd and 3rd phases of the South Pars Gas Field (SPGF) on Monday.

The export of the first consignment of condensate gas was observed by the members of the Majlis Economic Commission and reporters in Assaluyeh, in the southern province of Bushehr, on Monday.

The director general of the 2nd and 3rd phases of SPGF, Yadollah Ahmadian, said that currently only one terrain out of four is operational in the 2nd and 3rd phases.

He said that a single terrain can currently yield about 20,000 barrels of condensate gas per day and that so far 590,000 barrels of condensate gas has been extracted.

He noted that by September this year, three other regions will go on stream, raising production to 80,000 barrels of condensate gas per day.

He also said that production could reach 50 million cubic meters of natural gas per day by September.

The price of every barrel of condensate gas on international markets is about 2 to 3 dollars above the price of crude oil. He said that the country can produce 8 million dollars worth of condensate gas per day.

A contract worth $2.012 billion for the construction of the second and third phases of the SPGF was signed between the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the French company Total in 1997, based on the buyback system.

The French company has vowed to complete the project by 2002.

Over 10,600 people are working on the second and third phases, 9000 of whom are Iranian nationals and the rest foreigners.

The SPGF, which is shared by Iran and Qatar, contains 8% of the world's proven gas reserves. Qatar started extracting gas from the field in 1991. Qatar has so far earned about 14 billion dollars from sales of gas from the field.

The "site preparation" for phases 4 and 5 has been completed and two appraisal wells have been drilled. Phases 4 and 5 are now under construction through the collaboration of the Italian company ENI and Petropars and Nikou of Iran.

The subcontracts for offshore and onshore activities of the project have also been selected.

Site preparation for phases 6, 7, 8 is also underway. The main purpose behind the launch of this project is to produce 80 million cubic meters of natural gas for Aqajari oil wells through a 512-kilometer pipeline.

The Petropars Company has won the bid for phases 6,7 and 8. Phases 9 and 10 are similar to phases 4 and 5. The tender for this project will probably be launched by next week.

Phases 9 and 10 will be implemented through both buyback and financing deals. Phases 11, 12 and 13 are also expected to produce LNG (liquefied natural gas). Phases 11 to 13 will produce around 9 million tons of LNG per annum and about 54,000 barrels of condensate gas in addition to 280 tons of sulfur per day.