Page 13 - MEOG Week 37

MEOG PRoJeCts & CoPmanies MEOG
Iran raises West Karoun oil target as Chinese set to commit
iRan
iRANiAN officials have said oil extraction at West Karoun oilfield will reach 500,000 bpd by the end of 2020 following a deal with China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) to increase production in line with an agreement to boost oil exports from iran.
The remarks came as a Petroleum Economist report last week quoted an unnamed source close to negotiations between iran’s foreign min- istry and China who said that iran and China had updated the China-iran Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and added new items to it, resulting in a commitment from China to invest $280bn over more than a decade in iran’s oil, gas and petrochemical industries and $120bn in ira- nian road and rail projects.
There is as yet, however, very little public information on which projects the partnership might cover. According to the source cited by the magazine, iran hopes to increase projected
recoverable reserves rates from oilfields from 5% to at least 25% by the end of 2021 at the very latest.
“For every percentage point increase, the recoverable reserves figure would increase by 670mn barrels, or around $34mn in revenues even with oil at $50 per barrel,” it quoted the source as saying.
in return for its big investment activity, Chi- nese companies are to be given the right of first refusal on any new, stalled or uncompleted oil and gas field developments and on opportunities in petrochemical infrastructure projects in iran, including the provision of technology.
China eyes iran as an integral part of its Belt and Road initiative to build modern infrastruc- ture to ease trade flows across several continents. Multimodal trade corridors that cross iran could take Chinese goods to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.™
PRiCes
Date
WTI (US$)
ICE Brent (US$)
DME Oman (US$)
OPEC Basket (US$)
10 September
57.29
62.38
61.48
62.74
11 September
55.67
60.81
59.71
62.08
12 September
55.05
60.38
59.53
60.51
13 September
54.80
60.22
59.35
60.02
16 September
62.67
69.02
67.90
66.43
Week 37 17•September•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P13