NISOC to Develop 4 Oilfields

Unlike other oil companies that are bound to develop oilfields under the new contractual framework known as Iran Petroleum Contract, the National Iranian South Oil Company will develop four domestic oilfields based on a model designed by the company's team of experts, NISOC's managing director said.

"The specialized model of contract that has the backing of Oil Ministry, government and the parliament has been drawn up with the help of a group of specialists who spent more than 100 hours to finalize it," Bijan Alipour was also quoted as saying by Shana on Sunday.

According to the official, the oilfields to be developed on the basis of NISOC’s model include Shadegan, Rag Sefid, Karanj and Parsi, comprising nine reservoirs in the southern oil-rich Khuzestan Province.

Attaching special importance to forging partnership with foreign giants to help tackle funding constraints and minimizing investment risk, Alipour noted that serious negotiations were held with 22 international firms to cooperate with them in joint ventures and memorandums of understanding will be signed in the near future.

Asked about the name of foreign enterprises, he noted that Poland's state-run PGNiG, British Petroleum and Russian DeNico Consortium are among the most important ones and as soon as ongoing negotiations come to fruition, a non-disclosure agreement will be signed to conduct technical studies.

Referring to the specifications of the new framework, he noted that based on the model's term, the National Iranian Company is the employer and NISOC will be the contractor, which explains why NISOC will devise the development and production framework.

"NISOC will be allowed to collaborate with international consulting firms to further improve the company's efficiency," he said.

 Alipour also said development of the fields will take five years per contract.

"The framework of the contract adopted exclusively for NISOC is similar to IPC in repayment terms," he said, noting that capital and wage payment will be possible out of half of the production surplus to the baseline target.

Commenting on the volume of investment foreseen within the framework of the new model of contracts, he said no ceiling and limit are in effect for attracting foreign capital and technology transfer to the country.

According to the official, NISOC's crude output stands at 2.950 million barrels per day, but plans are in place to boost production to 3 million bpd by the end of the current fiscal year in March 2017.