Page 8 - MEOG Week 43 2021
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MEOG FINANCE & INVESTMENT MEOG
NIOC targets West
Karoun expansion
IRAN THE National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) this week completed within a year.”
reiterated its focus on expanding production In July last year, PEDEC and fellow NIOC
from the West Karoun oilfield cluster, targeting subsidiary Petropars signed a $1.26bn contract
$11bn of budget allocation to add 1mn barrels to increase oil production capacity at South Aza-
per day (bpd) of new output. degan from 140,000 bpd to 320,000 bpd by the
In comments carried by official state energy end of January 2023. The upstream portion of
media outlet SHANA, Mohsen Khojastehmehr the contract includes drilling 35 wells, installing
said: “We need around $11bn in investment to 50 downhole ESP pumps and completing eight
develop the second phase of the North Azade- manifolds.
gan and Yadavaran oilfields, as well as the South The midstream part includes a 320,000 bpd
Azadegan and Yaran.” He added that the 1mn central treatment export plant (CTEP), two
bpd expansion was one of NIOC’s top priorities. intermediate separation plants, 328 km of flow
The West Karoun cluster in Khuzestan Prov- pipelines, 45 km of communication pipelines
ince includes several large oilfields that straddle and 65 km of gas and crude oil transmission
the Iran-Iraq border, namely Azadegan, Yaran, pipelines running from the CTEP to the West
Yadavaran and Darkhoein, with the first three Karun Pumping House and the NGL 3200
divided into north and south projects. The block facility. 10 of these wells were contracted to the
holds an estimated 67bn barrels of oil in place National Iranian Drilling Co. (NIDC), with
(OIP). Oil production from the fields currently Petropars awarding the final 25 wells to Dana
runs at around 420,000 bpd. Energy and Tadbir Drilling Development Co. in
Khojastehmehr was appointed head of NIOC June this year.
in September. He made the comments during a Once complete, these will take the total num-
ceremony to unveil Abouzar Sharifi as CEO of ber of wells drilled at South Azadegan to 206,
NIOC subsidiary Petroleum Engineering and fulfilling the first development phase of the asset.
Development Co. (PEDEC), replacing Touraj However, while Khojastehmehr expressed
Dehghani. gratitude for efforts to date on Wet Karoun,
Khojastehmehr stressed the need for the he said: “Unfortunately, we could not proceed
swift implementation of oilfields shared with according to plan in this area and it is necessary
Iraq, adding that “delays and shortcomings in to compensate for the shortcomings.”
the development of these fields have been due He added: “If we want to complete the process
to defects in the contracts concluded between of developing the second phase of North Azade-
PEDEC and the developers”. gan and Yadavaran fields along with the devel-
He added: “We expect the development opment of South Azadegan and Yaran fields, we
process of the South Azadegan joint field to be will need about $11bn in investment.”
P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 43 27•October•2021
