Zanganeh: Oil Output to Rise by 460m Barrels in Three Years
EghtesadOnline: Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Saturday plans have been devised to lift the country's output capacity by 460 million barrels within three years by recovering the extraction rate from major hydrocarbon fields.
"The plan will focus on increasing output from 29 oilfields, including in Ilam, Khuzestan, Gachsaran, Falat Qareh and Fars [in south and southwest Iran]," Zanganeh was quoted as saying by Shana, the Oil Ministry's news portal.
The minister noted that all the projects will be submitted to Iranian companies and contractors will be obliged to use domestically-produced equipment. “More than 75% of the equipment for increasing output will be supplied by Iranian manufacturers," he said.
According to Zanganeh, two-year deals will be concluded in the current fiscal year (ending March 2019) to help the ministry achieve the projected hike within a maximum period of three years, Financial Tribune reported.
This could offer considerable opportunity to utilize the utmost potentials of domestic players in the upstream sector amid threats posed by US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the historic nuclear deal.
Iran is pumping around 3.8 million bpd of crude oil and condensates, a type of ultra light crude. The expected rise would raise output capacity to 5.5 million bpd, or about 1 million bpd above the current production level of Iraq, the second largest OPEC producer ahead of Iran.
Iran has an estimated 158 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, representing almost 10% of the world’s crude reserves and 13% of reserves held by the OPEC.