Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.5 / Trend F.Milad/
Giant multinational oil companies have lined up for signing oil deals with Iraq to develop its oilfields, so that Iraq is expected to quadruple its output at joint oilfields with Iran by 2017.
The Mehr news agency on Saturday reported that Iraq has held two international tenders and inked some 40 deals with large oil companies to increase its output to 8-10 million barrels per day.
Iran plans to increase its oil output by one million barrels by 2015, although some analysts say it seems impossible to attain the goal under the global economic sanctions.
Iran's oil reserves stand at 158 billion barrels, the ISNA news agency reported, signaling a slight rise in the Islamic Republic's estimate.
Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said in August that the Iranian government should consider plans for the development of joint oil fields in the border areas with Iraq, the IRNA news agency reported.
The government should increase the budgets for the development of joint oil fields, Qasemi said at a meeting with the Iranian oil industry contractors.
"The oil industry's infrastructure needs more than 500 trillion rials (about 50 billion U.S. dollars) of investment to achieve Iran's 20-year economic perspective plan goals," Qasemi was quoted as saying.
Qasemi said that the private sector should form "huge oil consortiums" to finance energy projects in the country and to exploit joint oil fields.
He said the Iranian manufacturers and contractors had problems with the project schedule due to low funds.
Managing Director of Iranian Central Oil Fields Company Mehdi Fakour has said Iran was prepared to sign an agreement with Iraq to develop joint oil fields in the border areas.
Fakour said Iran was studying the details of the agreement, which, if signed, would help the two neighboring states increase their crude output.
According to Press TV, the two countries have 23 joint oil fields in the border regions. Earlier this year, Tehran and Baghdad agreed to establish joint expert committees to finalize the technical and financial details of a deal aiming at the development of the joint oil fields.
Last October Iran upped its reserves figure to 150.31 billion barrels from a previous estimate of 138 billion barrels in response to neighbor Iraq increasing its estimate.
"By the end of the fifth development plan, the country's oil production must increase to 5.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and this should happen from the country's joint fields," ISNA quoted Qasemi as saying.
Officials have put Iran's current output at between 3.6 million and 4 million bpd. Hormoz Qalavand, head of the National Iranian Southern Oil Company, told the Fars news agency recently that Iran's oil production is 3.92 million bpd.
Two drilling rigs are currently in operation in the South Azadegan oil field, putting Iran ahead of schedule in tapping the field which is jointly shared with Iraq.
The first and the second phases of early production at this joint oil field have come on stream with the output of 55,000 bpd, according to reports.
This is while Iraq has started developing the oil field in cooperation with Malaysia's Petronas, Anglo-Dutch giant Shell and US Halliburton with the aim of producing 1.6-1.7 million barrels of crude per day.
A Chinese company has offered a master development plan (MDP) to the National Iranian Oil Company based on 360,000 bpd output.
The Chinese company has so far invested some US$6 million in the project and it will invest more than US$200 million once the project is launched.
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has previously said that it will invest US$12 billion in the project in the next ten years to reach the oil field's output to 600,000 bpd in the first two development phases. The first phase is projected to come on stream in 52 months.
In 2009, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and signed a US$1.76 billion deal with the NIOC to develop the neighboring North Azadegan field, where they hope to extract 75,000 bpd.
The Azadegan is one of the world's largest oil fields, with estimated reserves of 42 billion barrels.