Page 8 - MEOG Week 05 2023

MEOG PRICES & PERFORMANCE MEOG

Iran reiterates oil plans, provides gas update

IRAN IRAN this week reiterated its plans to increase production from the area, targeting $11bn of
oil production capacity to 5.7mn barrels per day budget allocation to add 1mn bpd of new output.
(bpd), while announcing that gas consumption In comments carried by Shana, he said: “We
has run to 228bn cubic metres this year. need around $11bn in investment to develop the
The oil target is nothing new, rather an second phase of the North Azadegan and Yadav-
update, given that the 5.7mn bpd figure was aran oilfields, as well as the South Azadegan and
first provided six or seven years ago, when Teh- Yaran.” He added that the 1mn bpd expansion
ran said it wanted to achieve the goal by 2018. was one of NIOC’s top priorities.
This week Mohsen Khojastehmehr, CEO of the The West Karoun cluster in Khuzestan Prov-
National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC), said that the ince includes several large oilfields that straddle
level would breached within eight years, pushing the Iran-Iraq border, namely Azadegan, Yaran,
back the previous target by at least two or three Yadavaran and Darkhoein, with the first three
years. divided into north and south projects. The block
The 5.7mn bpd target would represent a holds an estimated 67bn barrels of oil in place
1.9mn bpd increase on the current level of 3.8mn (OIP). Oil production from the fields currently
bpd, while Khojastehmehr said that 900,000 bpd runs at around 420,000 bpd.
of this would be “realised through recovery-im-
provement projects”. Gas usage
He said that the country has 6,000 low-yield Just as oil output is being pushed upwards,
wells and 700 have been selected to be passed to NIOC’s sister firm the National Iranian Gas Co.
more “capable domestic companies for revival”. (NIGC) reported the country’s annual gas con-
“We have assessed the risk of the wells and sumption at 228 bcm, 70% of which is consumed
identified and examined them, based on which by the industrial sector.
they have been categorised as high-, medium-, The NIGC’s director of co-ordination of gas
and low-risk wells; every company can be supply, Muslem Rahmani, said that 30% of usage
awarded up to five wells for reviving according to is in the domestic sector, adding that the 70:30
their ability,” he added. The MoP estimates that split is reversed during winter months, with
reviving a low-production oil well costs around demand from household and commercial sec-
$1mn, around 90% cheaper than developing a tors at times accounting for up to 80%.
new oil well. He added: “Iran is also one of the rich coun-
Much of the remainder of the expansion will tries in terms of gas energy due to the presence
come from the south-western West Karoun of very rich reserves in the South Pars region and
oilfield cluster. In October, Khojastehmehr other regions, which has caused great measures
reiterated the company’s focus on expanding to be taken in this field.”™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 05 01•February•2023