Talks between the National Iranian Oil Company and domestic and foreign upstream firms to increase output from 22 oil and gas fields have gained momentum, a senior official said.
"NIOC is close to signing contracts over Yaran, Mansouri, Sepehr and Jofeyr fields early next [fiscal] year [starting March 21]," Gholamreza Manouchehri, deputy for development and engineering at NIOC, was also quoted as saying by Shana this week.
The company is also in talks with domestic and international bidders over 18 other hydrocarbon reservoirs, including Azar, Ab-Teymour, Changuleh, Dehloran, Maroun and Koupal. Several proposals have been vetted and negotiations are at a good stage of development, he added.
A majority of the fields are located near Iraqi borders. Iran is looking to raise production capacity from joint fields with Iraq.
The country shares several oilfields with its western Arab neighbor in an oil block known as West Karoun in southern Khuzestan Province. It aims to boost the nominal output capacity from the oil block by 40,000 barrels a day from the present 320,000 bpd.
According to the Oil Ministry, extraction from shared hydrocarbon reservoirs with Iraq is high on the agenda as a leverage to reach the government's goal of producing 4 million barrels of crude per day.
Iran currently pumps an average of 3.8 million barrels a day.
The higher output target will coincide with the end of an accord between OPEC and producers to slash crude output to end a global glut and lift prices trading at more than half of their peak levels since 2014.
