Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 19
By Rahim Zamanov - Trend:
Iranian Ambassador to Iraq Hassan Danayifar said on Feb. 19 that the two countries plan to form a special joint committee to discuss issues relating to their joint oilfields, Iran's Fars New Agency quote Iraqi Aswat al-Iraq as reporting.
"The committee will discuss current problems," Danayifar said, adding that there is a good understanding between the two sides.
"It is natural that disputes occur between two countries with 1400 kilometres of borders," he added.
Iran's IRNA News Agency reported on February 15 that Tehran has so far invested over $4.4 billion in its joint fields with Iraq.
Developing joint oilfields which are located at the western side of the River Karoun is among the Iranian oil ministry's top priorities.
Once all the aforementioned oilfields come on stream, over one million barrels per day would be added to the country's oil production capacity.
Over $20 billion needs to be invested in the development projects of Iran's joint oilfields with Iraq.
Iraq's Oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told Iranian Fars News Agency on February 7 that the Iranian and Iraqi joint committee has achieved considerable progress in negotiations over the development projects of the two countries' joint oilfields.
He went on to note that Iraq imports gas from Iran to meet its domestic demands and to feed its power plants.
"Tehran and Baghdad have good relations in the oil and gas sector," Jihad explained.
Iran has 15 joint oilfields with its Arab neighbours. The joint oilfields production accounts for less than 10 per cent of Iran's current total oil output.
The development process of Iran's three joint oilfields with Saudi Arabia including Arash, Esfandiar and Farzad is currently slow, the Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company Roknoddin Javadi said, adding that Iran currently produces 252,000 barrels of oil at its joint oilfields with neighbouring countries.
Javadi told the Iranian Mehr News Agency on January 24 that the country also produces 283 million cubic meters of gross gas at its joint South Pars gas field.
Iran produces 283 million cubic meters of gross gas per day at 10 phases of the gas field. Some 200 million cubic meters of that amount is being transferred to the national gas network, while the rest is being injected into the oil wells or being fed to the petrochemical complexes.
According to BP's reports, Qatar produces 460 million cubic meters of gas per day mostly from South Pars (North Dome) gas field. Doha converts 80 per cent of the aforementioned amount to LNG and exports it. Qatar also extracts 450,000 barrels of oil from the field's oil layer, while Iran still fails to tap the oil layer.
However, the situation at the joint oilfields is even much worse than the situation at South Pars.
The Majlis Research Centre reported in January 2013 that the total extraction volume of Iran's neighbours from the joint oil and gas fields is nine times more than Tehran's share.
Dehloran, West Paydar, Naft Shahr, Azadegan, Yadavaran, and Azar are the joint oilfields between Iran and Iraq. Iran produces 130,000 barrels of oil daily at those fields, while Iraq produces 295,000 barrels.
Iran shares Forouzan, Farzad B, and Esfandiar with Saudi Arabia. Iran produces 42,000 barrels of oil at the fields each day and Saudi Arabia produces 450,000 barrels.
Iran and the United Arab Emirates also share the Salman, Nosrat, and Farzam oilfields, along with two other little fields named Salam and Sater. The UAE produces 136,000 barrels of oil at the fields, while Iran produces 56,000 barrels at the same fields.
Iran also shares two gas fields with Kuwait and Oman. Iran's output at the joint Hengam oilfield currently stands at 20,000 barrels, which is approximately twice that of Oman's share.