Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 15 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /
With drilling and repairing eight wells in the joint Salman oilfield with the UAE, Iran's production of crude in the Persian Gulf increased by 10,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The project for development of Salman joint oilfield, which aims at daily production of 50,000 barrels of oil and 500 million cubic feet of natural gas, will become operational in the near future.
To develop the oil section of this joint oilfield, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) plans to drill 23 wells, inject water and oil, construct and install platforms for transport of gas, produce platform and repair well platforms, Mehr News Agency reported.
The project gas section envisages producing 500 million cubic feet of gas a day and 6,000 barrels of gas condensates from Dalan gas reservoir, drill nine wells, build two platforms and an offshore platform to process gas, as well as construct 220 km of pipeline to transport gas to Siri and Mobarak platform.
At present, construction of 32 inch pipeline with a length of about 220 km, which is the biggest pipeline to transport Persian Gulf gas, is complete and based on the designated timetable the project should go on stream before the Iranian year's end (March 20, 2011).
So far, over $1.3 billion has been invested to implement the Salman field development project, where Iranian contractors hold 70 percent in stake.
Earlier, NIOC Managing Director Mahmood Zirakchianzadeh said about one million barrels of oil has been exported from the Hengam oil field in the Persian Gulf, noting possible increase in oil output at the Salman oil field by nearly 10,000 barrels a day in the near future.
Zirakchianzade stated that simultaneous injection of water and gas into the Salman field had increased recovery rate of the field by 50 percent. "The NIOC is the biggest Iranian oil producer from joint fields and the company was shares 13 oil and gas fields with the Persian Gulf countries."
According to Zirakchianzade, by boosting production from Hengam oil field and commencing oil production plan at Salman oil field, shared oil field production could increase by 20 percent at the end of this Iranian year (ending March 20, 2011) as compared to a year earlier.
Salman field (formerly Sassan) was discovered in 1966 with in-place reserve of over four billion barrels of oil and 5.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Salman field is jointly owned with the UAE's Abu Al-Khosh field.
