TEHRAN — The Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) will release the tender documents for sweetening gas refined at the South Pars (SP) phases 6-8 in mid-2007, the POGC managing director has said.

Studies on gas-sweetening of the refinery at SP phases 6-8 are underway, and the engineering of the project needs four months for completion, Akbar Torkan told PIN.

“Then, the tender documents for the phases’ gas-sweetening will be released in mid-2007,” said the official.

Torkan also explained Iran's Petropars Company and Norway's Statoil are contractors for the development of phases 6-8. However, the Petropars should take part in the tender for sweetening project, he added.

The project to develop South Pars phases 6-8 is underway to produce 80 million cubic meters of gas and 120,000 barrels of condensates per day. The phases will also produce 1.2 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) per annum. They will generate around $4.5 billion of revenues for Iran per year, once they become operational.

Meanwhile, Torkan told the Mehr News Agency that the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has financially backed the development of six phases at the South Pars gas field.

The financing of the six SP phases’ development projects was halted due to certain reasons, he explained, declining to name the reasons.

“Therefore, the NIOC decided to compensate financing for the projects via funds allocated out of the Oil Stabilization Fund (OSF),” he elaborated.

The official added that phases 9, 10, 15, 16, 17 and 18 were the phases whose financing were halted.

The POGC is affiliated to the NIOC, which is responsible for projects to develop South Pars, North Pars, Golshan, and Ferdows gas fields, all in southern Iran.