The inauguration ceremony was held in the southern city of Asaluyeh on Monday with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in attendance, according to the IRNA.

The strategic project comprises the drilling and completion of 12 wells, the installation of the first platform and its requirements, and a subsea pipeline to transfer gas to the onshore refinery of Phase 12 in the Pars 2 region of Kangan, southern Iran, which will result in a daily production of 28 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas.

The gas field will initially produce 15 million cubic meters of gas per day before increasing to 56 million cubic meters of gas, 50,000 barrels of gas condensate, and 750 metric tons of sulfur per day, the Iranian Oil Ministry said Monday.

South Pars gas field, located in the Persian Gulf, was discovered by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in 1990 and forms the northern part of the offshore North Dome gas field in Qatar.

Dubbed as the world’s biggest gas field in terms of reserves, South Pars is estimated to hold 14 trillion cubic meters of recoverable gas reserves and 18 billion barrels of recoverable liquefied natural gas.

The project was virtually put on the back burner after French giant Total backed out of it in August 2018 following the reinstatement of sanctions on Iran by the former US administration.

China National Company for Petroleum (CNCP) stepped in to replace Total as the operator, but it too walked out two months later amid the pressure of US sanctions.

Raisi said the project was implemented by local Iranian experts after foreign firms walked out of it, adding that the country is no longer dependent on foreign consultants.

In his remarks, Oil Minister Javad Owji said the inauguration of the project ended 20 years of wait and saved the country $800 million in development costs of the gas field.

He asserted that Iran has achieved self-reliance in all sectors of the oil industry in the past two years.

“We have become self-sufficient in all upstream and downstream sectors of the ministry of petroleum. We have achieved self-sufficiency in developing oil and gas fields and drilling onshore and offshore wells, as well as horizontal drilling, directional drilling, refinery construction, etc.,” he said.

Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr, Managing Director of the NIOC, said in statements that the development of phase 11 of South Pars was “one of the most strategic and important projects” that materialized after 20 years of delay.

In October 2018, NIOC started work on the project with the help of local experts and consultants.

Additionally, during Raisi’s visit to southern Iran, the Hengam Petrochemical Project will also be inaugurated.

Raisi arrived in Asaluyeh on Monday to inaugurate several significant economic projects.