BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 16. The die has been cast to kick off the development of three significant oil fields in Iran, namely Azar, Azadegan, and Masjed-Soleyman, according to a meeting held today by the Iranian government's Economic Council, Trend reports citing the Iranian VP’s official information portal.
Today, Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, along with ministers and other officials, attended the 9th meeting of the Iranian government's Economic Council.
The decision allocates approximately $12 billion for the development of these oil fields. Under long-term contracts, the Iranian government expects to generate around $140 billion in revenue from these fields. Local companies and startups are expected to be involved in the execution of the development projects.
As part of the development plan for the Azadegan oil field, which Iran shares with Iraq (known as Majnun in Iraq), a production increase project will aim to produce over 1.7 billion barrels of crude oil in the next three years.
Iran will invest around $1 billion in the development of the Azar oil field, another joint venture with Iraq (known as Badra in Iraq), with the aim of increasing its crude oil production capacity by 177 million barrels over a 20-year period.
The development of the northern section of the Masjed-Soleyman oil field is planned with an investment of $257 million, which will contribute an additional 21 million barrels to the country's crude oil production over two decades.
Furthermore, current technology and equipment can extract approximately 340 billion barrels from Iran's estimated 1.2 trillion barrels of total hydrocarbon reserves. However, the country is only utilizing about 30 percent of these reserves, leaving 70 percent untapped underground.