Page 52 - IRANRptOct22

Iran’s oil exports running at level 40% higher than a year ago says NIOC CEO
The outlet noted, though, that oil output is running at just under 2.6mn bpd owing to sanctions hampering exports.
To achieve this, the country will require a combined $160bn of domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI), with the IRNA report suggesting that $50bn has already been secured, including last week’s $40bn memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Russian gas monopoly Gazprom.
According to the Ministry of Petroleum’s (MoP) Shana news agency, that agreement covers the development of the Kish and North Pars gas fields, pressure enhancement at the supergiant South Pars offshore gas field and the development of six undisclosed oilfields. The parties will also engage on gas and product swaps, while Gazprom will work to complete LNG projects abandoned when sanctions were imposed on Iran in 2012 and construct gas export pipelines. The deal also covers scientific and technological co-operation.
Early this month, NIOC signed a $7bn investment deal with local companies, banks and the National Development Fund of Iran (NDFI) to raise output at Azadegan, Iran’s largest oilfield, to 570,000 bpd from the current combined 215,000 bpd across the north and south development projects.
Meanwhile, in March NIOC signed a $530mn, 20-year agreement with a foreign company to apply enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques at the South Pars Oil Layer (SPOL)
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 bpd and the second phase seen raising this to 55,000-60,000 bpd.
The deal with Gazprom is clearly the most encouraging for Tehran, though it largely follows a 2018 agreement that failed to bear fruit. Further detail was provided by NIOC CEO Mohsen Khojastehmehr, who told Shana that the oil element entails an investment of $4bn across seven fields.
While investment progress appears to be in the offing, another major gas discovery was announced this week, further expanding the country’s already world-class resource.
Malek Shahriati, spokesperson for the Iranian Parliament’s Energy Commission, was quoted by the local YJC news agency as saying that a field holding 1 trillion cubic metres of gas had been discovered to the north of South Pars. He said that further exploration efforts were being carried out on the asset.
For Iran, though, recovery is a far more immediate problem than identifying new resources. With average recovery rates at southern fields understood to run in the region of just 5-8%, it risks leaving huge volumes of oil in the ground, hence the push for investment in improved and enhanced recovery efforts.
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 reached pre-sanctions levels.
Iran uses discounts and grey market tactics aimed at avoiding sanctions enforcers to encourage buyer nations to keep accepting its crude oil shipments. China is its main market. Washington is widely seen as presently and largely standing off on sanctions enforcement on Iranian oil sales given that Iran and the US are currently attempting to successfully complete the Vienna talks to relaunch the 2015 nuclear deal, or JCPOA.
52 IRAN Country Report October 2022 www.intellinews.com