The National Iranian Oil Company plans to increase crude oil and gas production capacity over the next eight years, the company’s director of integrated planning said.
“Oil and gas output are expected to reach 5.7 million barrels per day and 1.5 billion cubic meters a day in eight years,” Karim Zobeidi was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana.
The official stressed that investment and cooperation of domestic companies, especially in the drilling sector, enjoys priority.
“The repair of wells and construction of processing facilities and pipelines are among other projects that can be invested in,” he added.
Iran currently produces around 2.5 million barrels of oil per day and its daily gas output capacity is close to 1 billion cubic meters.
“The completion of the development plan of Phase 11 of South Pars Gas Field, pressure boosting projects in other phases of South Pars and the development of Kish and North Pars gas fields are among NIOC’s plans to boost gas production capacity in the country,” Zobeidi said.
The development plan of Phase 11 of South Pars will be completed next year for maximizing gas production from the giant field shared with Qatar.
Phase 11 is the only one among the 24 phases of the joint field in the Persian Gulf, which has not been developed yet.
When fully operational, the phase will produce 56.6 million cubic meters of gas per day plus 75,000 barrels of gas condensate.
South Pars is by far the world's largest natural gas field. It covers an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.
The field holds an estimated 51 trillion cubic meters of in-situ natural gas and some 50 billion barrels (7.9 billion cubic meters) of natural gas condensates. So far, more than $78 billion have been spent on the field that accounts for 80% of Iran’s gas need.
Offshore Gas Fields
The development of the North Pars Field and the first phase of Kish Gas Field is on the agenda of NIOC, which will help increase gas production by 240 million cubic meters per day.
Located 120 kilometers southeast of the southern Bushehr Province, North Pars is one of the biggest independent gas fields of the country.
A brief review of North Pars shows that 17 wells have so far been drilled and 26 offshore platforms have been installed there. However, development and production are yet to start.
Kish field is the second largest field in the Persian Gulf after South Pars, located 30 km east of Lavan Island.
As the world's fifth biggest offshore gas field, Kish reserves were discovered in 2006 and is believed to hold an estimated 1.9 trillion cubic meters of natural gas in situ, of which 1.4 tcm are recoverable. It also contains more than 500 million barrels of gas condensates.
Unlike South Pars that is shared with Qatar, Kish is fully inside Iranian maritime borders near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Development of Oilfields
Operations are underway to develop several oilfields to increase the crude output capacity in the country.
The fields include South Azadegan and Nargesi oilfields in Khuzestan Province, Naft-Shahr Oilfield in Kermanshah Province and Azar Oilfield in Ilam Province.
Upon the completion of the development project at Azadegan, its crude oil production capacity will reach 320,000 barrels per day from the current 140,000 bpd.
Located 100 km west of Ahvaz, South Azadegan is estimated to hold 27 billion barrels of oil in place, of which 1.7 billion barrels are extractable. It is part of the West Karoun oil block in Khuzestan.
West Karoun, Iran's top priority for raising crude production to restore the market share it lost to international sanctions, includes Mansouri, Yaran and Yadavaran, as well as North and South Azadegan joint fields. The block holds an estimated 67 billion barrels of oil in place.
The development project at the Nargesi Oilfield seeks to increase production by 8,000 barrels of oil per day.
Nargesi Oilfield is located 70 km northeast of Bushehr Port at the southeastern tip of Dezful in Khuzestan Province and adjacent to Roudak, Solabdar and Golkhari fields. Its current output stands at 15,000 bpd.
Naft-Shahr Oilfield is located 72 km south of Qasr-e Shirin County. It is a joint field between Iran and Iraq, and provides a portion of Kermanshah's refinery feed.
According to the statistics, the field holds a total of 692 million barrels of crude oil reserves as well as natural gas.
Stretching over 400 square kilometers, Azar Oilfield is shared with Iraq, where it is known as Badra. It is located 20 kilometers from the city of Mehran in Ilam Province in the Anaran exploration block.
Azar holds 2.5 billion barrels of in-place oil, of which 400 million barrels can be extracted.
Its development plan aims to raise the field’s output that currently stands at 65,000 barrels per day.
Sanctions No Barrier
Despite the US sanctions, Iran has continued development projects in oil, gas and petrochemical industries.
The previous US administration unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, signed between Iran and six world powers, in May 2018. It reimposed sanctions on Iran, targeting its key economic sectors, namely oil, banking and shipping industries.
In order to successfully complete all the planned development projects, about $90 billion should be invested in the oil sector and about $70 billion in the development of gas fields.
The higher output has been planned in view of the country’s potential regarding oil and gas reserves, as Iran holds about 1,200 billion barrels of oil equivalent underground, which include reserves of crude oil, natural gas and gas condensate.
In terms of gas reserves, Iran is second in the world after Russia, having about 34 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves.
There are about 24 gas refineries, more than 130 processing and exploitation units and about 140 onshore and offshore drilling rigs in Iran.
