West Karoun oilfields in Khuzestan Province will increase its collective oil output by 105,000 barrels a day by the end of the current fiscal year (March 2019), the managing director of Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC) said.
“With considering Azar Oilfield’s output, the combined crude production of West Karoun reached 350,000 barrels per day in the past fiscal, which is planned to rise to 455,000 barrels per day this year,” Noureddine Shahnazizadeh was also quoted as saying by ISNA on Tuesday.
Shahnazizadeh added that Azar and South Azadegan oilfields are projected to produce 65,000 bpd and 170,000 bpd respectively by March.
According to the official, West Karoun’s pump station has the capacity to transfer 300,000 barrels of heavy and super heavy crude oil, which is due to reach 1 million bpd in the years to come, as well as 250,000 bpd of light oil.
West Karoun MoUs
Referring to the status of memoranda of understanding signed with domestic and foreign companies on the development of Azadegan, the PEDEC chief said Azadegan, which is divided into southern and northern parts, is planned to be developed integrally.
"Royal Dutch Shell has finalized its technical report on Azadegan, while the French oil and gas company Total has completed the southern part of the oilfield and is carrying out studies on North Azadegan," he said.
Shahnazizadeh added that Tenco, a subsidiary of Khatam-al-Anbia Construction Group, Petropars and INPEX have also presented their technical studies to the National Iranian Oil Company, while Persia Oil and Gas Industry Development Company is yet to furnish a report on the oilfield. The official said Norway’s DNO and Thailand’s PTTEP have also sent the result of their studies on Changouleh Oilfield in West Karoun.
"The in-place oil reservoir of West Karoun is estimated to be about 67 billion barrels," he said, underlining that with an extraction rate of 6%, about 6.4 billion barrels can be drawn from the oilfields, which will have $230 billion in revenues for the country with a $50 oil per barrel.
Shahnazizadeh said that based on the development plan of West Karoun, its collective output is planned to reach 565,000 barrels per day in the first phase and over 1.2 million bpd in the second.
“Prior to signing a contract under the new oil contract framework on Yadavaran Oilfield, the extraction right of the oilfield will be given to China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) with an addendum,” the official said, adding that the two sides have disagreements on the oil capacity of Yadavaran, which is scheduled to be finalized on May 21 in Iran.
According to Shahnazizadeh, the Chinese company believes that the oilfield’s oil production capacity should be increased to 210,000 bpd in the second phase from the current 150,000 bpd while it can reach 270,000 barrels per day.
