BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The next Iranian government (which will come to power in August 2021) should increase crude oil extraction to 6.5 million barrels daily, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said, Trend reports referring to Shana News Agency.
He made the remark today on May 31, in an event dedicated to the signing of contracts to conduct exploration on development of the Azadegan oil field.
According to him, Iran can easily get this volume of extraction. Iran's macro-policies emphasize the increase in oil extraction.
"This is not dependence on oil, but independence from oil. If oil money is spent in the private sector, Iran's budget will not depend on from oil," he said.
Zanganeh added that it will not be long before conventions restricting oil extraction are implemented.
"Accordingly, Iran should increase oil production as soon as possible. Because then there will be international restrictions," he pointed out.
“The exploration on the development of the Azadegan oil field has been launched. However, the next government will make a final decision on the development of this field. Of course, $4.5 billion must be provided in this regard,” he said.
Zanganeh stressed that at present, the extraction rate from the Azadegan field is 5.5 percent. If the rate increases by 1 percent, Iran's revenues will increase by $10 billion.
As reported, Iran's Azadegan oil field is located 80 km southwest of the Ahvaz city in the Khuzestan Province (southwestern Iran). It is estimated that the field contains about 32 billion barrels of oil. In Iran, this field is usually divided into two parts - North Azadegan and South Azadegan.
Iran's North Azadegan oil field is being developed by the Iranian Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC). As a result of development, the extraction from this field will increase by daily 75,000 barrels in the first stage, and by 150,000 barrels in the second stage.
Reportedly, daily 55,000 barrels of oil are extracted from this field at present.
At present, crude oil extraction from Iran's South Azadegan oil field is 85,000 barrels daily. The field contains 28.2 billion barrels of crude oil, of which 1.6 billion barrels can be extracted.
According to the first plan for the development of this field, daily 320,000 barrels of crude oil and 197 million cubic feet (about 7 million cubic meters) of natural gas will be extracted from the field.
According to the second plan, daily 280,000 barrels of crude oil will be extracted from the field. In total, 600,000 barrels of crude oil daily will be extracted from Azadegan oil field.