Gholamreza Manouchehri announced the successful completion of the performance test of 21 of the 28 days of final crude oil production in Azar Field, saying: "Considering the 97% progress of the joint field’s development plan, the first phase of this project is being operated and will be officially inaugurated soon.”

In an interview with Shana, he said a daily production of 65,000 barrels of crude oil has been secured in the field by its developers, adding oil production began in the field back in 2016 with 15,000 b/d. the figure was doubled in 2017 and has reached 65,000 b/d.

Mr. Manouchehri said an of 1.4 billion Euros was made to finance the project, adding the contract for the development of Azar field was signed in September 2011 with OIEC and Ahdaf investment Company on the one hand and the National Iranian Oil Company on the other.

The resources for developing the project were provided by dipping into the National Development Fund of Iran and the Ahdaf Investment Company, he said.

This is the first upstream project by the Oil Industry Pension Fund and Ahdaf Investment Company.