Page 15 - MEOG Week 01 2021

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

Iran awards more contracts, drills on

IRAN IN early January, the National Iranian Oil Co. Joe Biden to office.
(NIOC) announced that it had agreed deals Tehran’s wish to increase output was indi-
through its subsidiaries National Iranian South cated by Zanganeh during an end-of-year visit
Oil Co. (NISOC) and Iranian Offshore Oil Co. to Moscow, when he was quoted by local media
(IOOC) to increase oil production. as saying that Iran is interested in having Russian
The $1.2bn deals had been due to be signed oil companies invest in developing its hydrocar-
during a ceremony attended by Oil Minister bons assets.
Bijan Zanganeh, but this has been postponed, Much of the groundwork for such invest-
without further details being given. ments was laid by companies including Lukoil,
However, it is understood that NISOC and Gazprom Neft and Zarubezhneft during 2015
IOOC will sign contracts with local contractors and 2016 when sanctions were set to be lifted,
for work at onshore sites in Bushehr, Fars, Khuz- only for talks to collapse as the US withdrew
estan, and Kohgiloyeh and Boyrahmad prov- from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
inces as well as the offshore Reshadat field, for (JCPOA).
which discussions are understood to have been
ongoing since mid-2020. Prolific drilling
The announcement is par for the course for Meanwhile, Iran has maintained its title as the
Iran. Amid struggles to attract foreign inves- world’s most prolific driller despite the corona-
tors, Tehran has pushed forward with the devel- virus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the Islamic
opment of its large oil and gas assets utilising Republic also enjoys the highest drilling success
domestic companies. rate.
Despite concern that the local service sec- On January 1, the National Iranian Drilling
tor would not be able to handle these initiatives Co. (NIDC) announced that it has now com-
without outside help, progress has been encour- pleted the drilling of 107 oil wells in the oil-rich
aging, though the deepening involvement of West Karoun cluster.
companies owned by the Islamic Revolution- According to NIDC’s deputy managing
ary Guard Corps (IRGC) means that if and director, Alireza Laiji, the work included the
when sanctions are lifted, foreign involvement drilling of 70 wells in the supergiant Azadegan
is likely to take longer than had previously been oilfield, one of NIDC’s largest projects to date.
anticipated. During the first nine months of the current
In August the NIOC awarded 13 contracts Iranian calendar year (March 20-December 20),
worth a total of $1.78bn to 14 local companies for the company drilled 87 oil and gas wells. Accord-
field development projects that are expected to ing to managing director Abdollah Mousavi, this
increase the country’s crude production capacity figure consisted of 23 development/appraisal
by more than 180,000 bpd once complete. wells, 62 workover wells and two exploratory
At the time, NIOC’s deputy director for wells.
development and engineering affairs Reza Deh- 17 drilling rigs are now being relocated to
ghan said that the deals were for the second operational areas and the company is conduct-
phase of a plan to maintain and increase pro- ing drilling activities across 10 Iranian provinces.
duction capacity. He noted that of the 13 projects NIDC accounts for a significant part of Iran’s
for which contracts were signed, 10 have already overall drilling capabilities, with 70 onshore and
implemented their first phase, reaching 25% offshore drilling rigs. Over the past two years, the
completion, adding that the “second and third firm has drilled a total of more than 240 wells
phases of the contract on increasing oil produc- throughout the country.
tion” would be signed. The NIDC’s drilling update follows the com-
Two of the contracts pertain to the offshore pany’s October announcement that it had agreed
Resalat and Forouzan oilfields, with the remain- deals to for the rental of 16 drilling rigs to five
der for projects at the following onshore oilfields domestic companies.
in the south of the country: Ahvaz, Balaroud, Parent firm NIOC reported that the agree-
Chalingar, Garangan, Mansourabad, Maroun, ments had been signed with Global Petrotech
Ramin, Siahmakan and Zilaei. Kish Co., Petro Iran Development Co., Pasar-
At the time, NIOC managing director gad Energy Development Co., Qeshm Oil and
Masoud Karbasian said that the 13 contract Energy Industries, and Petrotenco Co., all of
awards would form the second part of a broader which were recently awarded contracts to carry
move to increase output capacity from 33 fields out work on oil and gas fields in the country.
to more than 280,000 barrels per day (bpd). Reza Dehqan, NIOC’s deputy director for
The latest announcement also accords with development and engineering affairs, said that
the mid-December statement by Zanganeh that the rigs would be used to drill wells at the Zilaei,
Iran would double oil output in 2021 to 4.5mn Mansourabad, Siahmakan, Ahvaz (phases one
bpd in anticipation of an easing of tensions with and four) and Maroun (phases five and 12)
the US following the accession of President-elect fields.™

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