“As far as the West Karoun area is concerned, we welcome the presence of foreign companies in the development of fields, but we also place trust in the capabilities of Iranian contractors,” he said.

Dehqani referred to the strategy pursued by the Iranian Petroleum Ministry and National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for developing jointly owned oil and gas fields, saying: “The 11th and the 12th administrations have over recent years focused upon recovery from joint fields, leading to enhanced recovery from the jointly owned fields.”

“Therefore, we welcome any new method that would help raise production on the Iranian side of the joint fields,” he said.

Dehqani said NIOC planned to bring production from West Karoun fields to 1 mb/d.

“In this regard, we have considered gradual production increase from the fields. The implementation of these policies in recent years has brought production from the oil fields of West Karoun to an acceptable level. Therefore, gradual increase of oil production will continue,” he added.  

Dehqani said gradual oil recovery from oil field was a technical and economic matter that would boost output during the process of development. “That would also help us make decisions for further development and the capital would not remain dormant,” he said.

Mobile Processing Unit

Dehqani said a mobile processing unit would be launched in the South Azadegan oil field soon.

“The startup of this unit will bring oil production from South Azadegan by 50,000 b/d in the shortest possible time,” he said, adding: “If we consider each barrel of oil at $60 a 50,000b/d increase in oil output from the South Azadegan oil field would generate $1 billion in annual revenue.”

Dehqani said: “Normally, creating capacity for 50,000 b/d of oil production from a field would require $1 billion in investment,” he said. “Since Iran has big oil fields in West Karoun that can produce several hundred thousand barrels of oil a day we are mainly seeking to reach maximum output with minimum investment. We also intend to shorten the period a capital remains dormant.”

National Interests Prioritized

Dehqani said PEDEC was not entitled to sign agreements with foreign companies, noting: “However, in the development of the Yadavaran oil field, Iran’s interests top our priorities.”

“We welcome the contribution of foreign companies to development of fields, but in case we feel that negotiations are lingering on we will not wait for them and we will move to develop the fields by relying on domestic capabilities,” he added.

Quick Development of South Azadegan

Asked if work had been slowed in West Karoun following the US’s withdrawal from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers, Dehqani said: “No! That has not occurred in West Karoun.”

“In some sectors of South Azadegan, where domestic contractors are engaged in development, the work has by no means been slowed, on the contrary everything has accelerated,” he added.

Dehqani said talks were in the final stage with Persia Oil & Gas Industry Development Co. for the development of the Yaran field.

Regarding the second development phase of the Azar field, he said: “We are in talks with OIEC (Oil Industries Engineering and Construction Company) which had developed phase 1 of the field.”

Confidence in Iranian Contractors

Dehqani said phase 1 development of West Karoun was nearly over, adding that the second phase of development was on the agenda.

He said Petroleum Ministry would make arrangements for the participation of qualified foreign companies involved in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), while trying to empower Iranian companies operating EOR projects.

Development of field is not tough per se, he said. “We definitely need new technologies in EOR. In light of the enhanced production we would achieve, it is worth making efforts to acquire state-of-the-art knowhow.”

“Given our achievements in commodity supply, drilling, tubing, casing, etc., we can hire Iranian contractors in some sectors. In fact we can accelerate the development of fields by using domestic capacity,” said Dehqani.

“I am assured that the Petroleum Ministry pays due attention to hiring Iranian contractors to develop fields. Although talks are under way with foreign companies, the ministry is not ignorant of the capabilities of Iranian contractors,” he added.

The oil fields located in West Karoun are North Azadegan, South Azadegan, North Yaran, South Yaran, and Yadavaran. The area is estimated to contain over 67 billion barrels of oil in place.

Until 2013, Iran was recovering a total of 50,000 b/d from all these fields which it shares with Iraq. Now the figure has exceeded 300,000 b/d.

Courtesy of Iran Petroleum