Iran has started construction of the first sweetening unit at the second refinery of the phases 2 and 3 of the giant South Pars Gas Field, said a senior official.

"The project to construct the sweetening unit was assigned to the Khatam-ul Anbiya Construction Company with the aim of taking the sour Sulfur compounds from gas condensate in phases 2 and 3 of South Pars Gas Field,” Sirous Peykar, project manager of the Demercaptanization (DMC) Unit in Gas and Oil Pars Company was quoted as saying by Irna, which cited Fars News Agency.

"The project to decrease the corrosion from harmful compounds in refineries, as well as improving the quality of gas condensate and raising the added value of the product is being implemented for the first time in the field,” he added.

South Pars field that Iran shares with Qatar, has 19 billion barrels of gas condensate in its Iranian part, 9 billion barrels of which is recoverable.

About 810,000 barrels of gas condensate are currently produced in 18 phases of the field; some 80,000 barrels are recovered from phases 2 and 3.