Lukoil Expects to Sign Oil Deals With Iran

Lukoil expects to sign contracts with Iran in 3-4 months to develop the country's oilfields, the head of Lukoil, Russia's oil-producing giant, Vagit Alekperov, announced.

The National Iranian Oil Company had announced a tender in the summer of 2017 for developing Mansuri and Changuleh oilfields, both located in Khuzestan Province in west-central Iran, Sputnik reported.

Lukoil has presented Iran with a plan for the development of Mansuri Oilfield. This is while Iran is also taking into consideration the plan submitted by the Indonesian firm Pertamina that has also applied for the tender to develop this field.

According to Omid Shokri Kalehsar, an Iranian independent expert on energy security from Washington, Lukoil is the favorite to win the tender, but the potential threat of the breakdown of all oil contracts is coming from the possibility of US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

“Last August, Lukoil presented Iran with a project to develop the Mansuri Oilfield such that the parties would sign the final version of the agreement in March 2018,” he added.

According to Kalehsar, during the meeting, Alekperov expressed interest in the development of the Iranian energy sector and noted the priority of investments in the development of oilfields in the country.

Given the total volumes of Iranian oil, Alekperov said the company would not be able to work on all Iranian oilfields and will only concentrate on two, namely Mansuri and Ab-Teymur fields.

According to preliminary estimates, the minimum amount of oil in the Ab-Teymur field is 15 billion barrels. Daily production from the Bangestan oil well amounts to 60,000 barrels.

Iran is expected to find many foreign investors for the development of its oil and gas fields. At present, contracts have been signed for the development of the 11th phase of South Pars with France's Total and China's CNPC, as well as a contract for the redevelopment of Aban and Paydare Gharb oilfields with the Russian company Zarubezhneft.

South Pars Gas Field is the largest in the world, with reserves of 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensates, which constitute 8% of the world's total reserves.

"If a contract is signed to develop the Mansuri and Changuleh fields, it will be the first serious contract with foreign companies this year,” Kalehsar said.