Iran: Offshore Oil Production, Exports Continue

EghtesadOnline: Iranian Offshore Oil Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, has not cut offshore crude output nor stopped loading oil for export, managing director of the company said Monday.

News ID: ۷۴۷۲۷۴

08 May 2019

"Our latest crude oil cargo from offshore fields was shipped for export last week," Hamid Bovard was quoted as saying by Shana, the Oil Ministry news portal.

The official did not elaborate on the volume nor the destination, but said, "Exports are underway as planned."

The US government terminated sanctions waivers allowing eight countries namely China and India to purchase Iranian crude in a bid “to reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero.”

According to Financial Tribune, the IOOC chief said more than 130 million barrels of oil was exported from Iran’s offshore fields in the past fiscal that ended on March 20.

Referring to production, maintenance and enhancement agreements worth $6 billion between NIOC and domestic firms namely IOOC in January, he said the deal includes 33 projects of which four offshore ventures worth $800 million will be undertaken by IOOC.

IOOC is in charge of developing oil reservoirs in the Persian Gulf, including Forouzan, Abouzar, Hendijan, Bahregansar, Reshadat, Soroush, Norouz, Salman and Doroud fields.

About the Forouzan Oilfield he said a tender to boost production will be finalized by the end of June. The anticipated project is estimated to cost $336 million.

Oilfields under the development by IOOC hold an estimated 100 billion barrels of crude, comprising roughly 15% of the country's total reserves, Bovard said. The company's current production amounts to 450,000 bpd.

"Talks are under way with local companies to collect 8 million cubic meters of associated petroleum gases in Forouzan and Siri oilfields per day."

IOOC is also in charge of Iran's first floating production, storage and offloading vessel, the FPSO Cyrus. It is extracting crude from the oil layer in South Pars, the giant gas field shared between Iran and Qatar.

According to the official, 20 batches of crude have been extracted from the oil layer and sold in international markets since 2017.

Iran has 145 hydrocarbon fields of which 26 are shared with neighbors, including Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan.