Azerbaijan, Baku, May 7/Trend M. Moezzi/
The decision to give Sinopec, China's second biggest oil and gas producer, the contract to develop Iran's Yadavaran field was based on the company's financial muscle and Iran-China relations, despite its lack of experience in exploration and production. The field's development is of strategic importance to Iran.
Naji Saadouni, the managing director for Iran's Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), has acknowledged that Yadavaran's development is 20 per cent behind schedule. The official attributed the delay to 'a number of problems', including Sinopec's absence of experience with upstream operations.
In two weeks, 20,000 barrels a day of crude oil will be produced by the field as part of an early production programme said Mr. Saadouni, a target that was to be met in late January to early February.
Located 70 miles southwest of the city of Ahwaz, Yadavaran sits the Iran-Iraq border and is shared by the two neighbours.
The first phase in the three phase project was scheduled to be finished by early summer; 48 months after the contract went into effect. Instead, it seems unlikely that the first phase will be finished.