Page 5 - MEOG Week 49 2022

MEOG COMMENTARY MEOG

bpd, suggesting that North Azadegan’s produc- New reservoirs
tion has been constrained. Later in the week, NIOC’s director of exploration
The Ministry of Petroleum (MoP) had pre- Mehdi Fakour said that new oil reservoirs had
viously set a target of 320,000 bpd for the first been identified in the sedimentary basins south
phase of South Azadegan by March 2023, with a of the Zagros fold belt, an area that spans the oil-
second development phase seen adding another rich Khuzestan and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ah-
280,000 bpd. mad provinces. These are home to Azadegan and
Meanwhile, NIOC director of corporate other supergiant and giant fields, including the
planning Karim Zobeidi said in May that output Yadavaran, Ahvaz and Gachsaran oilfields.
from the two fields would reach 220,000 bpd by Fakour said: “For the first time, we have
that date. achieved the method of aerial magnetometry
The latter figure was reiterated in September which is used up to a depth of 7,000 metres
when NIOC revealed it had signed a financing below the surface of the earth to identify reser-
deal with a group of local firms to support the voirs and hydrocarbon fields,” noting that 10%
field’s development. of Iran would be surveyed by the unmanned air-
Home to around 32bn barrels of oil in place craft which was designed domestically.
(OIP) across the Sarvak, Kazhdomi, Godvan He said that the amount of hydrocarbons
and Fahilan layers, Azadegan is Iran’s largest oil- identified so far is equivalent to around 16bn
field and is split into two development projects barrels, though significant further investigation
– south and north. The giant reservoir is shared will be required before these could be deemed
with Iraq, where it is known Majnoon (Insane) reserves, in which Iran ranks fourth in the world
on account of its size. with roughly 209bn barrels, according to the US
Despite its great potential and nearly 200 EIA.
wells having already been drilled on the south- Meanwhile, NIOC said that it had carried out
ern site alone, recovery factors across the asset logging work in an offshore exploratory block
have slowed progress, with primary recovery on that indicated a deposit containing around 30
the Sarvak layer, which covers around 90% of the trillion cubic feet (850 bcm) of gas. At 1,200 tcf
field’s reserves, just 5.1% in the south and 4.5% in (34 trillion cubic metres), Iran’s gas reserves rank
the north, according to NIOC. Secondary recov- second globally. Details of the latest finds are due
ery rates are around 10% and 2.5% respectively. to be provided by Oil Minister Javad Owji in the
Following the signing of a $7bn funding ‘near future’.
deal in July, Khatam-al Anbiya Construction The latest discoveries are reminiscent of those
Headquarters (KAA), the engineering arm announced in 2019: the Eram gas field (538 bcm
of the hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guard of gas and 385mn barrels of condensate) and
Corps (IRGC); its subsidiaries MAPNA Group, Namavaran, a 53bn barrel heavy oil layer that
Oil Industries Engineering and Construction extends across the previously discovered Ab-Tei-
(OIEC), and Persia Oil and Gas Industry Devel- mour, Darkhovin, Jofair, Mansouri, Sepehr and
opment Co. (POGIDC); and Sina Energy Devel- Sousangerd fields, adding around 22bn barrels
opment Co. were announced as NIOC’s partners net.
on the project alongside Bank Melli Iran, Bank For Iran, though, recovery is a far more
Mellat, Bank Tejarat, Bank Parsian, Bank Pasar- immediate problem than identifying new
gad and Bank Shahr. resources. With average recovery rates at south-
Sina Energy is a religious endowment for war ern fields understood to run in the region of
veterans and the poor, owned by the Bonyad-e just 5-8%, it risks leaving huge volumes of oil in
Mostazafan Foundation and falls under the Exe- the ground, hence the push for investment in
cution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO). improved and enhanced recovery efforts.™

Week 49 07•December•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P5