Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 29
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran has prepared a plan to invest $7 billion in a number of oilfields and create two gas hubs in the Persian Gulf.
Saeed Hafezi, managing director of the Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC), said the National Iranian Oil Company has approved the plan for Resalat, Reshadat, and Salman fields, Iran's Mehr news agency reported Sept. 29.
He also said that creating two gas hubs in Siri and Lavan regions in the Persian Gulf are on the agenda.
IOOC has put the priority on the development of small and medium fields and the prevention of gas flaring at oilfields, he added. Besides energy loss, the flaring of associated gas significantly harms the environment.
A special plan has also been prepared to maintain oil and gas production in the Persian Gulf, he noted.
"Meanwhile, studies for the transit of gas from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf started."
Increasing production of associated petroleum gas in the Persian Gulf fields by 10 billion cubic feet has been projected, he said.
Statistics show that the overall associated gas from Iran's offshore Persian Gulf oil wells is estimated at 20 million cubic meters per day.
Hafezi said on Sept. 20 that Iran is negotiating with companies from France, Norway, Italy, and Ukraine to boost production of oil from its Persian Gulf oilfields.
He added that it is planned to raise the oilfields' output to 32,000 barrels per day (bpd), 130,000 bpd and 400,000 bpd in short, mid and long-term periods, respectively.
Edited by CN