All Eyes on Iran's Oil, Gas

Oil, Gas Properties

China, India and Japan, accounting for half of the country's oil exports, have increased their purchases in the past year. But with the ease of sanctions, Iran is set to unveil new oil and gas investment opportunities to Western oil companies in November – the conference was delayed from early April – according to a Jan. 21 Reuters report. The London conference would offer international oil companies the first opportunity to see Tehran's more attractive commercial terms, according to Reuters.

Tehran is seeking Western oil companies' technical know-how to revive its giant aging oilfields and develop new oil and gas fields once sanctions are lifted. The National Iranian Oil Company has "grown its overall volumes from 4.9 million to 6.1 million barrels of oil per day," according to a Nov. 17, 2013 Forbes article.

"The Iranian oil industry needs experience," stated Brooks. "Horizontal wells are crucial for the effective development of many Iranian oil and gas reservoirs.

Two major assets that the country needs to revitalize are the Marun field and the South Pars field, located in the Khuzestan region close to the border with Iraq.

Marun, the second largest oil field in the country, which produces from onshore wells, flows about 520,000 barrels per day of oil. The field holds an estimated 22 billion barrels of oil.

Iran's largest non-associated gas accumulation is the South Pars field, an extension of Qatar's 241-trillion cubic feet (Tcf) North field. Originally appraised at 128 Tcf, the South Pars field is now estimated to contain 240 Tcf, of which a large fraction is recoverable, and holds at least 3 billion barrels of condensate. Since development began in 2002, Iran has developed the field in 24 phases out of which only 10 are active and 14 are under development without any production timeline.

The field needs at least 1,800 miles of new pipeline to accommodate its capacity, said Abdol-Hossein Samari, deputy director of the National Iranian Gas Co., according to Iran's official energy news website Shana. New pipelines are needed to transport the 7.2 billion cubic feet of gas expected from the first five phases of the field's development.


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Ian Simm  |  February 19, 2014
With IOCs from across the world queuing up to talk to Iran, and Tehran making advanced preparations to welcome them, the fact that there is no certainty that foreign investment in Iran’s oil industry will not remain strictly forbidden could almost be forgotten.


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