NISOC to Finalize 2 Oil Deals by March

Negotiations to develop two oilfields in the southern Khuzestan Province, namely Shadegan and Karanj, will be finalized by the end of the current fiscal that ends in March 2018, the National Iranian South Oil Company's director of technical affairs said.

"The NISOC experts are reviewing the technical surveys carried out by domestic firms like Pasargad Energy Development Company that recently presented its development plan for Shadegan and Karanj deposits," Hamid Deris was also quoted as saying by Oil Ministry’s Shana news service on Friday.

According to the official, PEDC carried out its surveys in 8 months and NISOC has approved the proposals.

PEDC is a subsidiary of Pasargad Financial Group, one of the largest Iranian financial and banking services companies. The company has diversified its energy assets since it was founded in 2008, having owned a combined-cycle power plant and acquired stakes in two other power stations.

Pointing to other firms that have completed their studies on the field, Deris noted, "Four other enterprise, namely Oil Industries Engineering and Construction Group, Pergas Consortium, a group of international oil and gas companies, MAPNA Group and Schlumberger Ltd, the world's leading oilfield services provider, have finished their studies on Shadegan Oilfield and are expected to submit their proposals in a week."

Shadegan has also attracted interest from Russia’s Zarubezhneft, Tatneft and Iran’s Tenco, a subsidiary of Iran’s Khatam-al-Anbiya Construction Group who are expected to hand in their development plans by the end of this month. Production from Shadegan Oilfield, located about 60 kilometers southwest of Ahvaz, is at a rate of 60,000 barrels per day, with plans in place to boost output after three decades of operations.

"Carrying out research on each hydrocarbon reserve requires certain conditions and requirements," he said, adding that both domestic and international firms have undertaken their studies in 6 to 8 months.

Asked about Karanj Oilfield, Deris said that NISOC is checking the presented master plans and plans have been devised to finalize a development deal by February 2018.

  Sepehr Deposit

Local companies are in a race to secure the development rights for Sepehr Oilfield, a deposit in the West Karoun oil block, with Ghadir Investment Company, engineering conglomerate MAPNA Group and privately-run Dana Energy having signed agreements to study the reservoir alongside state-owned OIEC.

According to estimates, Iran needs to spend $500-600 million to tap into the field’s 300 million barrels of proven reserves.

OIEC is seeking other energy projects in the oil-rich region. The company hopes to partner with Russia’s Gazprom Neft to develop two oilfields at the southwestern border with Iraq.

The oilfields are likely to be developed under a buyback model that has been used in most Iranian energy projects in the past two decades.

According to Ahmad Mohammadi, head of a special workgroup at the NISOC, the firm is assigned to develop four oilfields in Khuzestan, namely Shadegan, Rag Sefid, Karanj and Parsi, with a total of nine reservoirs, based on a special model of contracts developed by the company.