Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 10
By Fatih Karimov- Trend:
Iran plans to deploy more new rigs at the joint oil and gas fields in the Persian Gulf, Saeed Hafezi, head of the Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) said.
The IOOC's priority is to use Iranian rigs in the fields, Hafezi said, adding that an Iranian private drilling company possessing one rig will start its activity in the fields in the new future, Mehr news agency reported Dec. 10.
A new tender also will be held to deploy new rigs in the joint oil and gas fields, he added.
The company has deployed most of its drilling rigs in Salman (shared with the UAE) and Foroozan (shared with Saudi Arabia) joint oil fields, Hafezi said, adding currently three drilling rigs are operating in Salman, Iran's joint oil field with Iraq.
Hafezi further said that Salman and Foroozan fields are given priority in company's newly introduced Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) investment projects.
Among Sorush, Noruz, Dorud, Salman, and Frouzan fields which were introduced in IPC Conerence last month, the last two have the priority because of the oil ministry's policy to develop the joint fields," Hafezi added.
Though Iran hasn't specified the estimated final production level at the Salman field, but currently the country produces 47,000 barrels per day from three layers of this field, while it's expected to increase this volume to 70,000 barrels per day.
Currently four production platforms, one wellhead platform, two gas lift platforms, one process platform and two quarter platforms exist in this field, 43 producing and 13 water injection wells are active. Some 1.661 billion barrels of oil have been produced from this field.
Iran has been producing oil from Foroozan, for four decades, and the total cumulative production volume has reached 770 million barrels so far. Currently 27,000 barrels per day of crude oil are produced from 66 wells of six layers of this field. Iran's share in total reserves of the field is about 11 percent.