TEHRAN June 07(Shana)--Iran’s speaker of parliament has said that the budget law for the current calendar year clears the way for investment in the oil sector.

“In the budget law for last year and the current year, there has been the possibility of a good jump for investment in the oil sector,” Ali Larijani said.

He said the budget laws authorize $100 billion in buyback deals for investment, particularly in joint oil and gas fields.

Larijani said Iran has made progress in offshore construction, adding that huge offshore installations are being manufactured and installed in Iran.

Iran is determined to develop the giant offshore South Pars gas field which it shares with Qatar.

South Pars, divided into 29 development phases, contains 40 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of natural gas.  It covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.

The gas field is estimated to contain about eight percent of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.

By SHANA