Page 50 - IRANRptJul22

Iran’s oil exports running at level 40% higher than a year ago says NIOC CEO
announced $70bn plans to expand production capacity to 1.5 bcm per day by 2030. Announcing the South Pars Oil Layer (SPOL) deal, Kord-Zanganeh said: “We are pursuing the exploration of oil layers in the oilfield as well.”
In mid-March, NIOC said it had signed a 20-year contract to leverage enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques for the second phase of development of SPOL to increase output, though Kord-Zanganeh said it had not been covered by the press owing to ongoing sanctions on Iran.
However, Middle East Oil & Gas (MEOG, Week 11) quoted NIOC CEO Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr as saying: “For the first time, horizontal drilling with new foreign technologies and water injection will be used as one of the methods of production enhancement.”
He added: “The situation of the South Pars oil layers is such that we cannot exploit them by conventional drilling that we have in the country; therefore this is one of the special advantages of this contract that in addition to foreign investment, technology transfer will also be made possible.”
The foreign firm will partner NIOC subsidiary Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Co. (IOECC) to update reservoir models, upgrade and modify existing facilities, overhaul existing well and drill new wells for appraisal, production and water injection.
Located 130 km off Iran’s southern coast in 67 metres of water, the oil layer has an estimated 7bn barrels of oil in place (OIP), 900mn barrels of which are seen as recoverable, with first phase production reaching 25,000 barrels per day and the second phase seen raising this to 55,000-60,000 bpd.
The South Pars deposit, which Iran shares with Qatar, covers an area of 9,700 square km, with Iran’s 3,700-square km portion holding around 14 trillion cubic metres of gas and 18bn barrels of gas condensates. In Qatar, the gas asset is known as the North Dome and is responsible for the vast majority of the island nation’s production. SPOL is the Iranian extension of Qatar’s Al-Shaheen oilfield from which QatarEnergy and partner TotalEnergies produce upwards of 300,000 bpd.
The secretive deal follows the announcement last week that talks are ongoing between NIOC and Russian firms for the development of two Iranian oilfields, widely believed to be Ab Teymour and Mansouri, for which Lukoil had previously agreed terms.
Pars Phase 11
Work is progressing on the final development phase of the project to tap South Pars’ gas resource, with the company responsible providing an update this week.
Mohammad Meshkinfam, CEO of Pars Oil and Gas Co. (POGC) – another subsidiary of NIOC – said that Phase 11 would be capable of producing 12 mcm per day by winter this year.
POGC holds ultimate responsibility for the development of South Pars, with fellow NIOC affiliate Petropars carrying out jobs on the surface and subsurface.
Speaking to the Ministry of Petroleum’s Shana media outlet, Meshkinfam said: “According to the gas production plan of this field, this [Iranian calendar] year, output will increase by 40 mcm per day.”
Iran's oil export volume is running at a level 40% higher than was seen a year ago even though US sanctions aimed at the country's petroleum industry are still in place, official news agency Shana on April 3 reported National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) CEO Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr as saying. On April 1, Tasnim News Agency reported Oil Minister Javid Owji as stating that Iran's oil production, at more than 3.8bn barrels per day (bpd), had
50 IRAN Country Report July 2022 www.intellinews.com