Qatar has lifted its self-imposed moratorium on the development of its North Field, which it shares with Iran, according to state upstream producer Qatar Petroleum (QP).

The gas producer imposed a moratorium on development of its side of the 1,800 trillion-cubic-feet South Pars-North Dome gas field – the world’s largest – in 2005.

Qatar had planned to study extraction and its impact on the large reservoir during the past decade.

Assessment studies as well as the drilling of several appraisal wells have shown potential for the development of gas projects, according to QP.

“Qatar Petroleum’s technical studies and assessment of the North Field have confirmed the potential for developing a new gas project that can be targeted for export with a capacity of about 2 billion cubic feet a day,” says QP president and CEO Saad Sherida al-Kaabi.

“It is worth noting that a project of this size will increase the current production of the North Field by about 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day to Qatar’s production.”

Al-Kaabi says the production will come from the furthest part of the southern sector of the North Field, away from the Iranian side of the shared block.

Iran has been ramping up gas production from the field it calls South Pars since the lift of nuclear-related sanctions enabled it to seek foreign expertise to develop its gas fields.

Tehran signed a preliminary agreement worth $4.8bn with France’s Total and China National Petroleum Corporation to develop phase 11 of South Pars.

The Islamic Republic has been pushing for greater gas output to meet domestic demand and enhance export capabilities. The first five phases of the South Pars gas field (17, 18, 19, 20 and 21) will likely boost Iran’s daily gas output by 150 million cubic metres, according to recent comments by the country’s oil minister Bijan Zanganeh.