A tender is expected to be held for Shadegan Oilfield to boost production from the southern oilfield that has been in operation for more than 25 years.
"National Iranian South Oil Company, the country's largest oil production firm, is planning the tender," Jahangir Pourhang, director of Marun Oil and Gas Production Company who oversees Shadegan field, said on Wednesday, Shana reported.
Pourhang added that NISOC will conduct technical assessments on the project, which entails the installation of a pair of 30-kilometer pipelines, oil pumps and separators—a pressure vessel used for separating well fluids produced from oil and gas wells.
Located 40 kilometers south of the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan Province, Shadegan Oilfield was discovered in 1968. The field's production capacity reportedly stands at above 500,000 barrels a day, but output is around 60,000 bpd.
Pourhang did not specify whether the Shadegan tender will be open to international contractors for bidding.
Shadegan, which is smaller in scale compared to some of Iran's marquee oil and gas projects, will not be part of the country's energy contracts that will be presented under a new contractual framework, dubbed Iran Petroleum Contracts.
Iran is taking steps to ramp up crude production capacity, as it tries to recover from years of sanctions that took its toll on its economy, particularly the country's pivotal oil and gas sector.
Officials say increasing output from shared oilfields with Saudi Arabia and Iraq, OPEC's largest and second-largest producers ahead of Iran, is the country's top mission in the post-sanctions period. The policy means domestic fields such as Shadegan are of lower priority in terms of development.
Iran is pumping more than 3.8 million barrels a day, but the country is eying a 14.5% share from the group's total output, which will put its output at around 4.7 million bpd considering OPEC's current production level.
