By Umid Niayesh – Trend:

Developing joint oil fields, in particular the West Karoun block, in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, ‎ which is shared with Iraq is a high priority for Iran’s administration.

Iran has, so far, invested $21.5 billion to develop its joint oil fields with Iraq including North and South Azadegan, Yadavaran and North and South Yaran fields in a bid to boost crude output from the oil block.

The country also eyes to attract leading foreign firms to the block’s development projects through its newly designed oil and gas contracts, called Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC).

Managing Director of Petroleum Engineering and Development Company Seyed Noureddin Shahnazizadeh said Oct. 3 that representatives of 14 international oil firms have visited infrastructures of West Karoun oil block and have been briefed about the latest developments.

He further forecasted that the first IPC-based contract will be signed before end of current fiscal year (March 2018) for development of the South Azadegan oilfield.

The oil ministry is preparing to hold a tender for the development of Azadegan oil field over the current year. It was earlier announced that Invitations were sent to 29 international companies , including France’s Total, Royal Dutch Shell, Italy’s Eni, Lukoil and Gazprom of Russia, Danish conglomerate Maersk, China’s CNPC and Sinopec, Austria’s OMV and Schlumberger, which approved a bid in the country’s oil and gas tenders to participate in the tender for developing South Azadegan oilfield.

The Economy Council of Iran has approved the development of West Karoun oil fields as the largest joint oil fields development plan. The project targets producing 550,000 barrels of crude oil per day by 2019.

The five fields in West Karoun Block hold 66.7 billion barrels of in-situ oil reserves, sharing 9.5 percent of the country’s total in-situ oil and gas condensate reserves.

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. The oil recovery rate of the filed is 5.7 percent and 58 wells are drilled so far. After commencing the second phase of this project, the output would reach 150,000 b/d.

South Azadegan

Currently, Iran produces 83,000 b/d from the South Azadegan field. The level would reach 320,000 b/d, after another 132 wells are drilled. 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 the near future.

Yadavaran

It’s cumulative oil production has reached 65 million barrels since 2012. The reserves of this field stand at about 33 billion barrels and in the second phase, the output capacity of this field currently stands at 110,000 b/d. Commencing the second phase of the field would bring the production level to over 450,000 b/d.

North and South Yaran

North and South Yaran oil fields hold one billion and 600 million of in-situ oil reserves respectively. North Yaran’s cumulative oil production has reached 1.04 million barrels. Iran has developed the North Yaran field by 89 percent, producing 30,000 b/d of oil from this field. Coming to South Yaran, Iran is producing 5,000 b/d of oil from this field and plans to double that figure.

The projected oil output based on development plan of West Karoun oil fields