Joint Fields Review
350mcm/d Extra Gas, 280,000b/d Extra Oil
The 11th administration took office in 2013 at a time the gas production capacity at the South Pars gas field, the giant offshore reservoir operated jointly by Iran and Qatar, was about 280 mcm/d. In the meantime, the output from jointly-owned oil fields in West Karoun did not exceed 70,000 b/d.
Today, the South Pars gas production capacity has reached 630 mcm/d, while West Karoun’s oil output has increased to 350,000 b/d.
2014, Joint Fields Prioritized
According to the 2014 data provided by the Directorate of Corporate Planning of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), more than 50% of oil investment went to exploration, development and maintenance of joint oil and gas fields. During the first half of the Iranian calendar year 1394 (March 2015-March 2016), over 50% of oil investment went to the South Pars.
By March 2015, a law was adopted on removing barriers to competitive production. Article 12 of this law authorized Petroleum Ministry to envisage investment up to $100 billion or its equivalent in Iranian currency in oil and gas projects. This project which needs equity or banking facility was started up after tapping the National Development Fund of Iran (NDFI) for financing South Pars and West Karoun projects.
In 2014, NIOC was following up on the development of the South Yaran and South Azadegan fields, both located in the West Karoun area. These two fields had been left to the 11th administration in September 2013 without any progress. In 2014, NIOC cancelled an agreement signed with a Chinese contractor for the development of South Azadegan due to its refusal to meet its obligations stipulated in the contract text. South Azadegan has since been under development by relying on domestic capacities.
By March 2015, Petroleum Ministry laid emphasis on the necessity of benefiting from domestic capacities. To that end, for the first time in the history of Iran’s petroleum industry, agreements were signed with several universities and research centers for technological studies on a group of oil fields. Azadegan field was assigned to the Petroleum Engineering Institute of the University of Tehran, Darquain field to Amir-Kabir University of Technology, Soroush field to Sahand University of Technology, Ahvaz field to the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, Karanj field to Islamic Azad