Zarubezhneft, IDRO Oil to Study Susangerd Oilfield

As per the agreement signed in Tehran on Saturday, a joint committee will conduct technical surveys on the oilfield, the company's news portal reported.

Nasrollah Zarei, the head of IDRO Oil, said, "The committee will announce the decision soon … In case of reaching mutual understanding, talks will be held with the National Iranian Oil Company to sign cooperation deals on the oilfield."

The official noted that, based on a deal signed in late 2017, Austria's HOT Engineering Company will provide consultancy services, technical support and a master development plan to study the field's upstream prospects, Financial Tribune reported. 

HOT is a reservoir exploration and production consultancy and knowledge-based company with headquarters in Austria and branch offices in Germany, the UAE and Libya. The enterprise is a provider of advanced and integrated geological, geophysical, petrophysical, reservoir and production engineering technology.

Susangerd Oilfield, with an estimated 5 billion barrels of in-place oil and 500 million barrels of recoverable reserves, is located 45 kilometers west of the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan. The field's daily output stands at 30,000 barrels, but the adoption of state-of-the-art oil recovery methods is expected to boost extraction.

Zarei said initial estimates show that the field's development would require an investment of $900 million.

Reports say other national and foreign companies have also shown interest in working on the field's development.

Earlier in February, Pars Petro Zagros Engineering and Services Company signed an MoU with NIOC to conduct studies on Susangerd Oilfield.

According to Gholamreza Manouchehri, the deputy for development and engineering at NIOC, Austria's integrated oil and gas company OMV, Russia's Lukoil, Indonesia's Pertamina, Japan's Inpex, French energy giant Total S.A. and Denmark's Maersk Group have embarked on studying the oilfield.

However, NIOC's main policy is to involve domestic firms to play an active role in oil and gas fields' development. 

"Assigning Iranian enterprises to expand relatively small fields tops NIOC's agenda," Manouchehri said.

--- Azadegan Oilfield

NIOC intends to boost production levels of the country's oil and gas fields. 

Ali Kardor, deputy oil minister and chief executive of NIOC, said on Saturday that efforts are underway to announce the results of studies on Azadegan Oilfield, one of the country's most important oilfields, as soon as possible.

Several major firms, including Royal Dutch Shell, French energy giant Total S.A., Malaysia's state oil and gas company, Petronas and Japan's Inpex Corporation, have submitted the results of their studies and prospective plans to NIOC. 

However, according to the official, NIOC awaits all the bidders' suggestions and survey results to announce the final decision.

South Azadegan is estimated to hold 33 billion barrels of oil in place. It is part of the West Karoun oil block in Khuzestan, which holds 67 billion barrels of oil.