Iran speeds up development of joint oil field with Iraq

Iran has accelerated development at an oil field shared with neighboring Iraq, despite sanctions that restrict its access to foreign investment and technology.

News ID: 2002181

A Tuesday report said that technical teams working in South Azadegan oilfield, located in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan in southwest Iran, had brought on line one of four production trains in the field with a capacity to produce and process 80,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The report said that Iranian technicians and contractors are solely responsible for the commissioning of the Central Treatment & Export Plant (CTEP) project in South Azadegan, which aims to produce 320,000 bpd of oil from the field once fully operational.

It said contractors have completed works on Train C of the project and are now racing against time to begin production from Train D before the end of December.

Over the past year alone, the project has completed more than 450 kilometers of cabling and 122,000 inches of on-site pipeline welding, the report quoted contractors as saying.

It said the pace of progress at the CTEP project in South Azadegan reflects the true potential of Iranian companies and demonstrates the country’s technological confidence and self-reliance amid severe foreign sanctions.

In the 1980s, Iran awarded initial contracts to Chinese and Japanese companies to develop South Azadegan, one of the country’s largest oil fields, which is linked to Iraq’s Majnoon Field, where international oil giants have carried out massive development projects in the past years.

The state-controlled Petropars, which has taken over several key petroleum projects abandoned by foreign companies in recent years due to US sanctions, is currently overseeing operations in South Azadegan./isna