Official: Iran Preparing for Production of over 4mln bpd of Oil in New Year

 

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran is designing plans and preparing ground for the production of over 4ml barrels of crude per day in the Persian New Year (started on March 21), a senior oil official said.

Iran’s prospect for the new Persian year is to ramp up crude oil production above 4 million barrels per day, CEO of the..

National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Mohsen Khojasteh Mehr said.

The focus will be on developing West Karoun, home to a cluster of oilfields which Iran shares with Iraq, to raise production to 1 million bpd, he said.

Since 2013, oil production from the block has increased six-fold to 420,000 bpd, Iranian media reports have said.

For additional development, $12 billion of investment is initially required in West Karoun, including $8 billion for shared fields, Khojasteh Mehr said.

He said NIOC’s plan is to accelerate development of South Azadegan and conclude the $4 billion investment scheme for the second phase of Yadavaran.

The plan includes integrated development of North and South Azadegan which requires some $7.5 billion of investment.

“Our priority is development and maximum production of shared fields,” he said. “Our vision for 1401 is to increase production capacity, which we hope to reach over 4 million barrels per day.”  

The Azadegan field is Iran’s largest, estimated to contain 5.7 billion barrels of crude reserves. For development, Iran has divided the field into North and South Azadegan.

China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) brought online the first phase of North Azadegan with 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) of output in November 2016. Last December, Khojasteh Mehr said Iran was negotiating development of the second phase of the field with foreign companies which he did not identify.

NIOC officials in the past have said the second phase of North Azadegan was being considered for development under a new contract model and CNPC was interested.

The development of South Azadegan is being carried out by a domestic company under a contract worth $5.6 billion.

Khojasteh Mehr said there are no restrictions on foreign companies’ investment, but the priority is to use domestic companies.

Another priority in West Karoun is to process natural gas extracted at oilfields and stop flaring it. Khojasteh Mehr said all the associated gas at North and South Azadegan and Yadavaran fields and part of Darkhovin will be captured and processed in the next six months.

Last month, NIOC signed $1.35 billion of deals to process natural gas extracted at its oilfields and develop an oilfield in the resource-rich Khuzestan province.

About $500 million of the deals involved building facilities to capture gas from East Karoun fields, Minister of Petroleum Javad Owji said then, adding the Persian Gulf Holding Company would sign similar contracts soon to collect gas from West Karoun fields.

Last week, Owji said his ministry planned to raise production capacity of crude and condensates in the new current year to 5.7 million bpd from about 3.7-4 million bpd.

In televised remarks, he also said he would try to raise Iran's oil and condensates exports to 1.4 million bpd as set out in an annual state budget.

Straddling the border with Iraq, West Karoun includes several large oilfields, namely Azadegan, Yaran, Yadavaran, Darkhovin, Naftshahr, Paidar-e Qarb and Azar, with the first three divided into North and South projects. The block holds an estimated 67 billion barrels of oil in place.   

Από το farsnews.ir