Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 22
By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:
Iran has prioritized the development of West Karoon block, including North and South Azadegan, Yadavaran and North and South Yaran fields with 64 billion barrels of reserves, which currently share about 6 percent in the country's total crude oil production.
All of the mentioned fields are joint ones with Iraq.
"The output of the mentioned 5 projects would reach 700,000 barrels per day by 2018," an Iranian official told Trend Aug.22 on condition of anonymity.
Currently Iran produces 3.65 million barrels per day (mb/d), about 0.85 mb/d more than during the sanctions era and still about 0.2 mb/d less than during the pre-sanctions level.
The official added that Iranian oil ministry has put focus on these fields, alongside the development of South Pars gas field.
"Currently, the Yadavaran and North Azadegan produces 175,000 b/d in the first phase and we are preparing to develop the second phase with Chinese Sinopec and CNPC's cooperation respectively," said the official.
North Azadegan
Currently 73,000 b/d of oil and 1.1 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of associated gas is produced from North Azadegan. After commencing the second phase of this project, the output would reach 150,000 b/d.
South Azadegan
Currently, Iran produces 50,000 b/d of South Azadegan and another 30,000 b/d would be added to this volume in September, said the official, adding that, the level would reach 110,000 b/d in and then 320,000 b/d, after another 132 wells are drilled. The official said that currently 19 rigs are active there. The second phase would add another 280,000 b/d of barrel to the output of South Azadegan, but not in in the near future.
Yadavaran
Coming to Yadavaran field, it's cumulative oil production has reached 54 million barrels since 2012. The official said that the reserves of this field stand at 31 billion barrels and in the second phase, the total output of this field would reach 180,000 b/d and commencing the third phase after completing 150 wells would bring the production level to 300,000 b/d.
North and South Yaran
Iran has developed the North Yaran field by 89 percent and producing 30,000 b/d of oil from this field would start in September. Coming to South Yaran, Iran is producing 5,000 b/d of oil from this field and plans to double that figure.
The Iranian official said that currently, the production capacity of these five fields stands at 225,000 bpd in total and would reach 315,000 by March 2017 and 700,000 b/d by 2018.