Keyvan Yarahmadi, who is in charge of the project at the Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), said the contract for the development of Changouleh field, which is adjacent to Azar, will be signed in the near future.

Speaking on Monday at the official opening ceremony of the Azar joint field development project, which is being held by video conference in the presence of the President and the Minister of Petroleum, he said the development plan of this field, which is shared with Al-Badra field in Iraq, has been handed over to a consortium consisting of pension funds and welfare of oil industry employees and Oil Industries' Engineering and Construction Group (OIEC).

Yarahmadi said the amount of oil in-place in the Azar field is estimated at roughly 4.3 billion barrels, and said the extractable reserves of this field, which is a light oil with an API grade of about 32 to 33, is estimated at more than 400 million barrels in a 40-year exploitation period.

Prior to today’s ceremony, production of the field was 30,000 b/d which has now increased by 65,000 b/d.

In the field of technical issues, he pointed to the participation of more than 75% of the Iranian companies in the project, which was achieved by relying on the strength and capabilities of domestic contractors and developers and in the form of assigning over 150 small and large contracts to them.