Tatarstan President: Iran pioneering world oil, petrochemical industries

Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov praised Iran for its eye-catching progress and development in oil and petrochemical industries, and described Iran as the world's pioneering state in the field. "Iran is a pioneer in developing the oil and petrochemical (industries) in the world," Minnikhanov said in a meeting with Iran's South Pars oil and gas field officials and authorities of the Southern Bushehr province on Saturday. "Iran has a lot to say in the oil and gas sector and today the South Pars is famous in the world," he added. Iran in October announced that all the phases of the South Pars gas field would come on stream by October 2015. The South Pars gas field is located in the Persian Gulf, North of Iran's maritime border with Qatar. The Iranian share, which is divided into 24 phases, has about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight percent of the total world reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources. Iran has 137.6 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and 29.61 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves, ranking second in the world in both oil and gas reserves.