Page 9 - MEOG Week 47 2022

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

NIOC concludes exploration

talks with foreign firms

IRAN THE National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) this development of the Kish and North Pars gas
week announced that it had concluded nego- fields, pressure enhancement at the supergiant
tiations with three foreign firms for oil and gas South Pars offshore gas field and the develop-
exploration. ment of six undisclosed oilfields.
Mehdi Fakur, NIOC’s director of explora- The parties are also to engage on gas and
tion, said: “Increasing co-operation in the field product swaps, while Gazprom will work to
of exploration is one of the most important goals complete LNG projects abandoned when sanc-
of energy diplomacy, which is being followed up tions were imposed on Iran in 2012 and con-
by NIOC.” struct gas export pipelines.
He added: “Currently, 11 main projects with The deal also covers scientific and technolog-
300 sub-projects have been defined in the explo- ical co-operation.
ration department of the NIOC, most of which Meanwhile, in March, NIOC signed a
being focused on study and research activities.” $530mn, 20-year agreement with a foreign
NIOC is working with the support of Oil company to apply enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
Minister Javad Owji, with Fakud noting: “In techniques at the South Pars Oil Layer (SPOL)
terms of budget allocation, we are at a high level, Located 130 km off Iran’s southern coast in
so that for the first time we were able to receive 67 metres of water, the oil layer has an estimated
the second rank of financial resources in the field 7bn barrels of oil in place (OIP), 900mn barrels
of drilling among the subsidiaries and depart- of which are seen as recoverable, with first phase
ments of the NIOC.” production reaching 25,000 barrels per day and
Given the political sensitivity of such negoti- the second phase seen raising this to 55,000-
ations, it is unsurprising that Fakud failed to dis- 60,000 bpd.
close the names of the firms with which NIOC NIOC has a seven-year investment plan that
has been holding talks. will allow oil production to rise to 5.7mn bpd,
In July, a broad, $40bn memorandum of with that of gas rising to 1.5bn cubic metres
understanding (MoU) was signed with Rus- per day, up from 3.8mn bpd and 1 bcm per day
sian gas monopoly Gazprom, covering the respectively, by 2029.™

Week 47 23•November•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9