According to IRIB, Mohsen KhojastehMehr said a $500-million contract for the production development and enhanced oil recovery from the oil layer of South Pars gas field had been signed on Tuesday between NIOC and a reputable foreign company as well as the Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company.

He added: "In this contract, for the first time, horizontal drilling with new foreign technologies and water injection will be used as one of the methods of production enhancement."

The NIOC CEO stated: “The situation of the South Pars oil layers is such that we cannot exploit them by conventional drilling that we have in the country, therefore, this is one of the special advantages of this contract that in addition to foreign investment, technology transfer will also be made possible.”

The contract for the development of the second phase of the South Pars oil layer has been negotiated and finalized for 20 years within the framework of the new upstream contract model. Accordingly, the developer is committed to supply the financial means for development of the project.

Accordingly, the project entails upgrading and modifying the existing processing vessel and platform, overhauling existing wells, drilling new wells including production and water injection wells and appraisal, construction of oil discharge and loading system and strengthening water injection system.

In the implementation of the contract, while updating the reservoir models using new data analysis, new wells will be drilled using horizontal drilling technology and tools for water injection and production. Also, a new unloading and loading system will replace the existing system.

The oil layer of the South Pars joint gas field, with an estimated oil content of about 900 million barrels, is located in the Persian Gulf, at a distance of about 90 km from the coast of Iran and on the common border with Qatar, and is a side extension of Al-Shahin field in Qatar. The proven oil layer of South Pars includes Sarvak, Kazhdomi, Upper Darian (main reservoir capacity) and Lower Darian formations.

The first phase of the development of the layer was put into operation in 2016. In this phase, a wellhead platform and a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) were provided and seven wells were drilled, which resulted in the production with a rate of about 25,000 barrels per day.