The National Iranian Drilling Company, a subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Company, drilled 116 oil and gas wells in the last Persian calendar year (March 2020-2021), the managing director said.
“Of the total wells, 113 ones were drilled on land and three offshore,” Abdullah Mousavi said. “These included development wells, appraisal wells, and exploratory wells,” ISNA quoted him as saying.
About the West Karoun Oil Fields to the west, which Iran shares with Iraq, he said 12 wells were dug there.
West Karoun is important and latest studies show its in-situ deposit is about 67 billion barrels containing light and heavy crude that could have a big impact on Iran’s decision to boost output in the coming months.
With the fields fully operational 1.2 million bpd will be added to production capacity that now is about 2.5 million bpd.
Besides conventional vertical drilling, complex horizontal and directional drilling operations were also carried out by the NIDC. “In this drilling method, which requires special skills, expertise and equipment, we dug 10,182 meters.”
Over 650 meters of core drilling was undertaken to reassess the condition of oil and gas reserves.
“With new technical and engineering knowhow equipment and parts for horizontal and directional drilling and core extraction are manufactured inside the country in collaboration with NIDC specialists, R&D centers and knowledge-based companies.”
According to Mousavi, the company has plans to maintain and increase production at 28 oil and gas reservoirs including Balaroud, Bangestan Lali, Ramin, Sepehr, Siahamkan, Naftshahr, Gachsaran, Ahvaz and Maroon.
“The NIDC has drilled 4,866 onshore and offshore oil and gas wells over four decades, of which 4,310 were onshore and 414 in the deep waters,” he said.
The company has a key role in drilling exploratory and development wells in Azadegan Oil Field in Khuzestan Province near the Iraqi border and in South Pars, the world's largest gas field Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf.
The NIDC has also drilling experience in the Yaran, Yadavaran and Darkhoin oil fields in Khuzestan, and the Azar field in Ilam Province.
Involved in almost 70% of onshore drilling, the company has 75 drilling rigs 68 of which are used in joint oilfields, namely Azar and South Pars. It is the main offshore and onshore contractor and provides 90% of drilling services to domestic companies.
Indigenizing the know-how for the manufacturing of the parts and equipment applied in different industrial sectors is one of the major strategies that Iran has been strongly following up to reach self-reliance.
The NIDC also draws on the capacity and potential of domestic firms in indigenizing parts and equipment for the key oil and gas sector.
The firm has managed to indigenize the knowledge for manufacturing over 6,000 drilling equipment in collaboration with domestic manufacturers and engineers in the past two years.
Indigenized equipment includes blowout preventers, traction motors, draw-works, drilling fluid recycling systems, mission centrifugal pumps, top drives and drilling rig slow circulation rate pressure systems.
