Baku, Azerbaijan, May 2
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Almost 10 percent of Iran's drilling rigs are idle, Mohammad Iravani, chairman of Board of Petroleum and gas Drilling Assembly Companies, said.
Currently there are about 180 onshore and offshore drilling rigs in Iran of that 10-12 rigs have fallen idle, Iravani said, Mehr news agency reported May 2.
He forecasted that the number of idle rigs will fall to minimum once implementation of new oil and gas projects starts.
Iran will hold tenders worth $30 billion regarding to production maintaining and development of oil and gas fields, he said.
At the moment 35 drilling rigs are operating in Persian Gulf, Iravani said, adding only 16 rigs belong to Iranian firms, meanwhile 19 rigs are rented.
He also said that Chinese win drilling tenders in Iran by dumping.
A Chinese firm recently won a tender for drilling in Phase 14 of South Pars Gas Field by offering very low price.
Drilling an offshore well in the South Pars Gas Field costs $35-$37 million on average, Iravani added.
Iranian Oil Ministry has earlier announced that the country needs $400-$500 billion in investment to develop its oil industry. Developing the upstream sector of Iran's oil industry alone requires $200 billion.
It was earlier announced that the country plans to boost oil production to 5.7 million barrels a day and gas output to 1.4 billion cubic meters a day by 2021.
By holding 157.8 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves, Iran possesses the world's fourth largest reserves of crude oil. The Islamic Republic also holds 34 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves, sharing 18.2 percent of total global gas reserves.