Page 7 - DMEA Week 45

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

Iran has been making
progress in expanding
its downstream
capacity.

surface and subsurface. These cover both onshore and offshore projects.
The overall SP11 phase is expected to achieve NIDC’s head of drilling operations Saeed
production of 2 bcf (56 mcm) per day, with out- Akbari said that of these wells, 22 were for
put sent directly to dedicated gas refineries at the appraisal, 48 were workovers and two were
Asalouyeh hub onshore southern Iran. exploratory wells.
Petropars was left as the only remaining part- Breaking down the data further, he added that
ner in the $4.879bn project, for which stakes 56 of the wells were drilled in the fields under
of 50.1% and 30% were awarded to French the operation of the National Iranian South Oil
super-major Total and China National Petro- Co. (NISOC), seven are run by the Iranian Off-
leum Corp. (CNPC) respectively in July 2017. shore Oil Co. (IOOC), five were drilled for the
The award was made for an integrated petro- Petroleum Engineering and Development Co.
leum contract (IPC) model, setting SP11’s pro- (PEDEC), one was for the Iranian Central Oil
duction target at the time to 20.8bn cubic metres Fields Co. (ICOFC), with the remaining three
per year. carried out on behalf of the National Oil Co.’s
The Chinese firm became the lead investor in (NIOC) exploration department.
SP11 after Total withdrew in August 2018 citing Iran has been able to boast the world’s high-
the threat of incurring US sanctions should it go est exploration drilling success rates, with that of
ahead with plans. The French firm had planned natural gas estimated at around 60%; however,
to invest an initial $1bn, focusing on a section of this has been tempered by low recovery rates
the field near the South Pars Oil Layer, adjacent for oil and this has led to increased activities in
to areas of the field under Qatar’s control. recent years as Tehran seeks to improve pro-
The company’s stake was handed over to duction capacity. Akbari alluded to this effort,
CNPC, with Petropars retaining the remaining noting that work is underway to relocate 17 light
19.9%. and heavy drilling rigs to projects in “oil-rich
In August last year, discussions between provinces”.
CNPC and Tehran were reported by state media
to still be ongoing regarding SP11, following Downstream progress
efforts a month earlier by Zanganeh to clarify the Progress has also been made in the downstream
Chinese firm’s intentions for the project. sector, and this is shown by the expectation that
Phase 11 will be the final phase of the field processing capacity at Iran’s gas refineries will
to come into operation, although efforts are still expand by 10% through the adding of new facil-
ongoing on other phases to ramp up production. ities or upgrading projects.
Last week, it was announced that the gas
Iran keeps drilling refinery for South Pars phase 8 had processed
Meanwhile, with a firm mandate from Tehran to more than 10 bcm of gas during the first seven
maintain momentum in the sector, the National months of the current Iranian calendar year.
Iranian Drilling Co. (NIDC) announced last While the field is being developed in 24
week that it had spudded 72 oil and gas wells phases, the onshore downstream element of the
during the first seven months of the current Ira- South Pars comprises 14 gas refineries dedicated
nian calendar year, which began on March 21. to processing output. ™

Week 45 12•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P7