Baku, Azerbaijan, August 20
Trend:
Iran has resumed crude oil export from the oil layer of South Pars Gas Field, the Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) has announced.
The 19th oil cargo of the South Pars gas field’s oil layer (SPOL) loaded last week by floating production, storage and offloading vessel, named FPSO Cyrus, the IOOC said via its official website Aug. 20.
The crude oil was suspended last month after FPSO Cyrus had a collision with the [Panama-flagged] SOL tanker in July, which caused slight damage to the vessel's body, hose and other offloading equipment.
However, the oil production resumed few days after the incident and continued simultaneously with overhaul operations in the, according to the report.
Iran began to extract crude oil from South Pars in March 2016 using FPSO Cyrus.
The Islamic Republic produces 25,000 barrels per day of crude oil from SPOL and was in 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.
