Azadegan oilfield to be put to international tender in two months

Manoucheri made the remarks in an interview with reporters on the sidelines of ceremonies to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Malaysian Petronas Company. 

He said that based on the MoU, Petronas will have six months to carry out exploration studies the fields, IRNA reported. 

He said that the two fields are getting operational and that for the time being, Azadegan fields produces 130,000 bpd oil in total and the share of north Azadegan field in the collection is 80,000 bpd, while that of South Azadegan 50,000 barrels per day.

The official said that an additional 100,000 barrels are to be added to their level of production in the coming months. 

'Of course, the goal of development of Azadegan oilfield is production of 600,000 bpd oil in the long run.'

He noted that tender on development of Azadegan field is going to be run by next three months and all the volunteers should present their bids afterwards.

He said that Petronas will have six months to carry out exploration studies on Azadegan field but the papers for international tender will be available earlier. 

'So, Petronas should offer its proposal along with its Iranian and international partners.'

Explaining the new oil contracts, Manouchehri said the contracts are 20-year in nature aiming to enhance oil recovery of Azadegan oil field to 20 percent from 5.5 percent and materialization of the goal depends on advanced technology for the EOR.

The new contracts envision a five-year timeframe and it will take 15 years and a total of 20 years for the fields to be operational, he said, adding that however, the life span of such fields as Azadegan is 50 to 60 years. 

'Therefore, after expiry of the contract, extraction of the fields will continue.'

On tender of Azadegan oil field, he said the oil reservoir is highly complicated, so the tender that will be held will have special characteristics.

On contribution of Malaysian companies to development of Esfandiar field, Manouchehri said Malaysia has not called for it but other countries have voiced willingness and the MoU to that effect has been exchanged.

On attraction of Iranian oil fields for international companies, he said regarding current price of oil, investment in many other unconventional oil sources is not attractive for international companies. 

'For instance, attraction of fields in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, shale oil will be less. In contrast, international companies will be willing to invest in Iranian and Iraqi oil fields whose cost price is less.'

Manouchehri said up to so far, 12 MoUs have been signed and an extra 10 to 12 more MoUs will be signed.

He noted that thus far, Shell, Total, Inpex of China and China's state oil company have signed MoUs on exploration studies which are underway.

On possibility of formation of an international consortium for development of fields west of Karoon, he said, 'Per the law, an Iranian and a foreign company should be present in the contracts; of course, they can form a consortium as well. We want to see genuine competition; so a single consortium will not be formed for western Karoon.'