Mohsen Khojastehmehr said on Monday evening in the meeting to review the plans of ICOF, which was held in the presence of senior oil executives at the headquarters of the South Zagros Oil and Gas Production Company in Shiraz, southern Iran, that ICOF is a company that has difficult and complicated conditions in its operations.

He stated that the capacity to increase production in South Zagros Oil and Gas Company is very high, and added: “Several oil fields are under development in this company, which is being done with the investment of two Russian companies.”

The NIOC CEO stated that ICOF has always been ahead of schedule and has not had any shortfalls in gas production this winter given the preparations made for this purpose.

Khojastehmehr continued: “We allocated about $300 million from the internal resources of NIOC to produce 10 million cubic meters for next year and 10 million cubic meters for 1403 (which begin on March 21 2024).”

He emphasized: “The minimum production of gas next year's winter should not be less than the maximum production this year, and in this direction, special attention should be paid to things like maintaining the production and storage capacity, especially in the region of Khangiran.”

The NIOC CEO said: “The goal of producing 300,000 barrels of oil and 400 million cubic meters of gas in the next eight years has been seen in ICOF’s plan, and the development of a field will take five years, but its exploitation may take up to 100 years. It will take a long time, so the necessary planning for human resources should be done from now on.”