Baku, Azerbaijan, May 15
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran will complete drilling 30 wells in its largest oilfield which it shares with Iraq, deputy managing director of National Iranian drilling Co. (NIDC), Mohammad Reza Takaidi said.
So far, some 28 wells in the South Azadegan oilfield are drilled by the NIDC, seven of them are fully completed, Takaidi said, oil ministry's SHANA news agency reported May 15.
At the moment eight drilling rigs are operating in the field, he added.
The NIDC has taken over drilling of 40 wells in the field from the state-run China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) which had its contract cancelled in May 2014 due to repeated delays.
According to an Oil Ministry's document seen by Trend news agency, the South Azadegan project experienced 17.6 percent development by January 2016.
Iran and Iraq both operate in the South Azadegan, Yaran and Azar fields, while the South Pars Gas filed is jointly owned by Iran and Qatar.
Iran has developed the first phase of this field. Currently, Iran produces 30,000 barrels per day from Azadegan, but the country plans to increase this figure to 320,000 barrels per day by completing the first phase and developing the second and third phases of this project.
Earlier, the Project Director of the Development Project of South Azadegan Seyed Mahmoud Marashi said that according to the preliminary estimates, the expected volume of investment to develop the second phase of South Azadegan would be less than $5 billion.