Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 13
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend:
Two more drilling rigs will be installed in Iran's Azar oil field, the Managng Director of the Petroleum Engineering and Development Company Abdolreza Hossein-Nejad said.
"Once they are installed, the number of drilling rigs will reach 6," the SHANA News Network quoted Hossein-Nejad as saying.
He went on to note that since Azar oil field is one of Iran's joint fields [shared with Iraq], the contractor needs to facilitate the project.
Azar oil field is part of the Anaran block.
In October 2011, Iran's Oil Ministry inked a $1.9-billion contract with a consortium of domestic companies for the development of the Azar oil field.
Before assigning the project to the domestic consortium, Iran was negotiating the development of Azar oil field with Russia's Gazprom. However, Gazprom was dropped from the project due the company's failure to meet its commitments.
The Azar oil field spans an overall area of 482 square kilometers in southeast Mehran in the western Iranian province of Ilam.
Iran shares oil and gas fields with most of its neighbors in the Persian Gulf region. In July 2011, Iranian energy officials said that as much as 35 percent of the country's energy development budget would go toward the development of joint oilfields.