The development of two wells at the Mansouri Oilfield in Khuzestan Province is complete, said the managing director of Oil Industries' Engineering and Construction Group, contractor of the development project.
“With the round-the-clock efforts of local engineers and specialists, wells 123 and 124 in the Mansouri field are currently producing about 4,000 barrels per day of oil,” the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana also quoted Mohammad Javad Shams as saying.
Using the maximum capacity of domestic experts and manufacturers, the two wells were developed to increase output at 28 reservoirs, he added.
In the past two months, OIEC has succeeded in launching three wells in the field. Currently, a total of five wells are producing oil at Mansouri field.
OIEC Group is a leading general contractor in engineering, procurement and construction projects, with focus on the oil and gas industry. It has been operating nationwide for over three decades.
Its activities include operating oil and gas refineries and pipelines, and petrochemical plants. The company is also involved in developing onshore and offshore fields.
Located 50 kilometers southeast of Ahvaz in the oil-rich Khuzestan Province, Mansouri Oilfield is a reservoir of 3.3 billion barrels of crude in southwest Iran. It became operational in the 1970s and plans call for lifting the field's output from the present 60,000 barrels per day.
Iran hopes to bring its oil output to over 5 million barrels per day. Some of the Iranian oilfields have already matured. Their oil has partly been recovered, but cutting-edge technologies are needed to extract the remaining oil.
At present, it would be possible to raise oil recovery rate from different reservoirs to over 80%.
Mansouri Oilfield is one of the reservoirs that Iran is working on to increase output. The high rate of recovery from the field has added to its significance.
The latest studies indicate that the average rate of recovery from oilfields in Iran is about 28%, while the Mansouri field has a recovery rate of 47%.
Increasing Output, Export
The National Iranian Oil Company has boosted its crude oil refining capacity to 3.8 million barrels per day, returning to levels not seen before the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal and reimposition of sanctions on Iran's crude sales in 2018.
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.
With indirect talks continuing between Iranian and American officials regarding the revival of the nuclear deal and removal of sanctions, Iran is expected to boost the capacity to 5 million bpd in the near future.
With the completion of development projects at 28 reservoirs in the southern regions of Iran, 250,000 barrels per day of new capacity will be added to the region’s oil output.
Iran has seen a surge in its production and export of oil and gas since 2021 as the country works to revive the Iran nuclear deal.
The speedy recovery of the country's energy sector has happened despite the fact that anti-Iran sanctions are still in place.
Iran's oil exports, which had fallen sharply under Western sanctions from 2012 to 2015, resumed their uptrend in 2016 after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015. Iran's oil exports averaged 2.5 million barrels per day in 2017.
Iran's oil reserves have been estimated at 157 billion barrels, equivalent to 10% of world crude oil reserves and 13% of oil reserves of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The reimposition of sanctions on Iran's energy sector in 2018 led to a significant slump in Iran's crude output.
The downtrend stopped only when Iran and world powers in 2021 began talks to revive JCPOA. Since then, the country's oil production started to see a rebound, as more optimistic lights were shed upon the country's energy sector.
Iran hopes to resume oil sales in international markets by reviving JCPOA and removing sanctions. Energy analysts predict that with the lifting of restrictions, Iran may be able to ship 1.3 million barrels of oil per day to international markets by the end of the current year.
