Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 29
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran has exported another crude oil shipment from the oil layer of South Pars, bringing the overall volume of the exports to 4.73 million barrels since the country started tapping the layer in March.
The tenth oil cargo of the South Pars gas field’s oil layer (SPOL) is scheduled to be loaded in December 2017, Director for planning of Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) Mohammad Hossein Daneshfar said, the Iranian oil ministry’s official website said in a statement Nov. 29.
The Islamic Republic has recently started production of 25,000 barrels per day of crude oil from SPOL and started talks with foreign investors, including Maersk, for the second phase of the layer development project, in order to increase the output level to 54,000 b/d.
The first phase of the project was developed by Iranians, and Tehran needs to offer the second phase of the layer development project to foreigners, because domestic companies lack the necessary technology for development of the next phases.
Development of SPOL needs use of modern technologies, including the Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods.
Previously, Fardin Asadi, operator of SPOL's development project said, that oil export from the layer is carried out each 20-25 days, when the extracted oil reaches the ceiling of 550,000 barrels.
Based on long-term plan, Iran targets to extract 200,000 barrels of crude oil from the South Pars oil layer in the next 20 years. At least 300 wells will be drilled in this regard.
The SPOL is estimated to contain over 6 billion barrels of crude oil with an API of 21 and recovery rate of 10 percent, which can be increased to 35 percent by adopting EOR and IOR techniques for oil recovery.
