Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 13
By Gazenfer Hamidov – Trend:
The development project of Azar oil field, in western Iran has witnessed significant progress, Keyvan Yarahmadi, the project’s operator at Iran's Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC) said.
The Azar, one of the joint fields with Iraq, spans an overall area of 482 square kilometers in southeast of Mehran town in the western Iranian province of Ilam. The field is estimated to hold 2.5 billion barrels of oil in place. The volume of possible oil reserves to be extracted from Azar field is estimate to be around 400 million barrels.
Yarahmadi said that the physical progress of the oil field has reached 78 percent, according to the official website of the PEDEC.
He said that the field’s daily production capacity will reach 60,000 barrels in next year.
The field’s output capacity is planned to reach 65,000 barrels per day at the first phase of the development project, he said, adding that under the first phase plan 17 wells must be drilled in the field, of that 13 wells is completed so far.
Yarahmadi further said that construction of the field’s Central Processing Facilities (CPF) - a production unit- is completed by 50 percent, expressing hope that the facility will become operational as soon as possible.
Operating capacity of the CPF is 30,000 b/d in early production stage of the oil field and 65000 b/d in final production stage.
The Azar oilfield’s output currently stands at 30,000 barrels per day.
Earlier in July 2017, Russia’s Gazprom signed a cooperation agreement with Iran’s Oil Industries' Engineering and Construction (OIEC) over the development of the oil field. In December 2017, the two companies submitted their joint plan to the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to develop the field.
Iranian oil sector officials say that Azar is a specific oilfield and the most challenging field in terms of drilling. The field’s oil contains a high amount of H2S which leads to corrosion in equipment and pipelines.
In 2016, Iran for the first time implemented acid fracturing operation in the Azar field in order to increase its oil recovery rate.
