NISOC Plans First Int’l Tender by March

The National Iranian South Oil Company may hold a tender for one or several oilfields in the fourth quarter of this year or the first three months of 2018 using its customized model of contracts, the company's CEO said.

"Shadegan oilfield in the southern Khuzestan Province could be the first project that will be tendered by NISOC, but it depends on the National Iranian Oil Company's approval of NISOC's own model of contracts," Bijan Alipour was also quoted as saying by the NIOC news website on Tuesday.

Shadegan Oilfield, located 60 kilometers south of Ahvaz, was discovered nearly half a century ago and started production in 1988 following the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. Production from the field is now reportedly at 70,000 barrels a day.

NISOC is in charge of developing four oilfields in oil-rich Khuzestan, namely Shadegan, Rag Sefid, Karanj and Parsi with a total of nine reservoirs, based on a customized framework developed by the company.

The company has developed a contractual framework that shares the fundamentals of Iran Petroleum Contract, the country's new framework of oil and gas contracts, but includes different technical and financial terms. IPC entails more attractive terms for cooperation and investment for multinationals.

The state-owned company operates 45 oil and gas deposits. It accounts for around 80% of total Iranian crude oil production and more than 15% of its gas supply, according to the company's own data.

NISOC has held negotiations and signed agreements with various foreign companies on studying Iran's hydrocarbon reservoirs.

According to Alipour, international energy consortium Pergas has completed its surveys on Karanj field and is finalizing Shadegan studies.

  Oilfield Study Deals

Alipour also pointed to an agreement signed with Zarubezhneft on Monday to survey Shadegan and Rag Sefid fields.

According to reports on Monday, Zarubezhneft is required to submit its proposal to enhance oil recovery from the fields within nine months, "but the Russian company has promised to hand in a development plan for Shadegan in four months", Alipour said on Tuesday.

Most of Iran's oil and gas field study agreements with foreign companies entail a six-month period.

"Other companies and energy groups, namely Schlumberger Ltd, the world's leading oilfield services provider, Pergas Consortium, Pasargad Energy Development Company and MAPNA Group, are also studying the oilfields and each field will be awarded to a firm that fully complies with criteria determined by NISOC," Alipour said.

Zarubezhneft is also in talks with NISOC to determine ways of raising production from Aban and West Paydar oilfields shared with Iraq.

NISOC has also discussed the development of Ahvaz Oilfield with BP, but cooperation depends on whether the oil and gas major will accept the terms and conditions within the NISOC contractual framework, an official at NISOC said last month.

Plans call for raising the field's crude production capacity to 1 million barrels per day, up 150,000 bpd from the current level.

Schlumberger is another top name in talks over Iranian fields. The world's largest oilfield services company has reportedly studied the reserves of Shadegan, Rag Sefid and Parsi fields.