Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 15/ Trend F.Milad/
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed eight contracts to develop the country's oil and gas fields since the beginning of the current calendar year on March 21, 2011, Shana news agency quoted a report by the NIOC as saying.
The Iranian Oil Industries' Engineering and Construction (OIEC) Company has signed a $1.9 billion contract with a domestic consortium to develop the onshore Azar oilfield, which is also linked to Iraq.
According to the agreement which was signed in October 2011, the oilfield will be developed in six years and will produce 50,000 to 65,000 barrels of light crude per day for a period of 25 years.
Also, the Electric Power Research Centre of Iran (MATN) and Energy Persia Company signed a $600-million deal in November 2011 to develop the Yaran oilfield in west of Iran. The field holds an estimated 1.1 billion barrels of crude reserve.
An early production of 10,000-15,000 barrels per day is expected to be started within 24 months.
Another contract was also signed in August 2011 relating to the development of the Darkhovin oilfield, southwest of Iran. The NIOC and a consortium of Iranian companies signed a $1.6 billion contract to develop the third phase of the Darkhovin oilfield. The project is aimed to daily produce 71,000 barrels of crude oil.
The Darkhovin oilfield's in-place oil reserve is estimated at over five billion barrels.
The Iran Offshore Oil Company agreed a $6 billion contract in December 2011 with domestic corporation, Sepehr Energy, to develop the Lavan gas field in the Persian Gulf and build a petrochemical complex in the region as well.
The field has gas reserves of around 9.5 trillion cubic feet. It also has the capacity to produce 750 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.
Moreover, the Pars Oil and Gas Company signed a $180 million deal in January with a domestic firm, named Global Petrotec, for drilling exploratory wells in the South Pars gas field.
According to the deal, some six kilometres of drilling should be carried out within 470 days to gather details on oil layers, to define the amounts of deposits and prepare a master development plan for the South Pars gas field.
Iran has also signed a deal for boosting output at the Hengam oilfield in the Persian Gulf by 18,000 barrels per day. The field is shared by Iran and Oman.
Another contract was signed for increasing oil output at the Salman field, run jointly with the UAE to increase oil output by 14,000 barrels per day and maintain gas output at 500 million cubic feet per day.
The eighth deal was related to the Reshadat oilfield in the Persian Gulf, aiming to boost output to 75,000 barrels per day from 8000 barrels per day.