BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 15. Iran will soon increase its production from the Azadegan oil field, which it shares with Iraq, to 500,000 barrels per day, Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owj, said, Trend reports.
He made the statement after a cabinet meeting in Tehran on February 14.
Owji said that Iran is currently producing 250,000 barrels per day from the oil field, which is known as Majnoon in Iraq.
He also revealed that the Oil Ministry has set a 25-year goal for developing the country’s major oil and gas fields, including Azadegan.
The minister stressed that the ministry is aiming to involve more private companies in the oil and gas sector, such as in field development and refinery construction. He added that state-owned companies will also play a role, as the private sector has limited capacities.
Owji claimed that the development time of oil and gas fields has been cut from 40–45 months to 20 months since the new Iranian government came to power (August 2021). He said that the ministry is working to further reduce it to 12 months.
The Azadegan is a joint oil field between Iran and Iraq (called Majnoon in Iraq). The field is located 80 km southwest of Ahvaz city in the Khuzestan Province (southwestern Iran), covers 1,500 square kilometers, and holds 32 billion barrels of crude oil. In Iran, this field is usually divided into two parts: North Azadegan and South Azadegan.
The National Oil Company of Iran, state and private banks, and several firms in the mining and drilling sector signed a deal on July 5, 2022, to ramp up production from the oil field that Iran shares with Iraq. The deal is worth $7 billion and has a two-year timeline. The goal is to achieve a production level of 570,000 barrels per day from the field, which will require drilling about 420 wells.
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