Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 11 /Trend, T.Jafarov/
Given that the Gazprom Neft Company is delaying the implementation of the project for the development of the Azer field, the National Iranian Oil Company will sign today an agreement on the development of the field with a consortium of several local Iranian companies, Iranian MEHR news agency reported citing the Oil Ministry of Iran.
According to the information, the amount of the contract totals $2 billion.
Earlier the Director of Iran's state-owned Petroleum Engineering and Development Co. Naji Sadun said that Gazpromneft highly delays the project to develop Azer field and the Iranian side is not going to wait for it to continue work on the development of the field.
The joint oil field Azer is located on Anaran oil block in Iran's Ilam Province on Iran-Iraq border. In Iraq, this field is known as Badra. Oil reserves of the field are estimated at 2.5 billion barrels of oil. Iran intends to develop the Azer field to get 50-65,000 barrels of oil per day.
National Iranian Oil Company and Gazpromneft Company had signed a memorandum of understanding on this field in 2009.
After in 2008, Statoil suspended development program in the oil fields of Azer and Changula, P.E.D.E.C. started to work in these fields with the help of Iranian experts.
According to estimates, the total volume of oil that will be produced in Azer field (together with the joint oil field Badra in Iraq) is 400 million barrels. It is projected that after the completion of the development of Azer oil field, the light oil production on this field will be about 50-65,000 barrels per day (during 25 years).
According to Iranian MEHR news agency, the reason that Gazprom postponed the project for the development of the Azer fields was that in 2009, Gazpromneft signed an agreement with the Iraqi Oil Ministry for the production of oil from the Badra field as part of the consortium, which also includes Turkey and Korea.
