TEHRAN (Iran News) – The National Iranian Oil Co. signed a $1.78 billion deal with a domestic company to develop the Farzad B gas field in the Persian Gulf.
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has planned to award Petropars company a $1.87 billion contract to develop Farzad B Gas Field.
According to the National Iranian Oil Company, with regards to the policies of the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum to tap the capacity of Iranian companies, the buyback contract for the development of Farzad B Gas Field will be signed with the NIOC as the employer and Petropars Company as the contractor on Monday, May 17.
The goal of this $1.78 billion contract is to achieve a daily production of 28 million cubic meters of sour gas in the field over five years.
The gas produced in this field will be transferred to the onshore facilities of Pars 2 in Kangan region for processing. In the onshore facility, gas condensate is first separated from the sour gas and then transferred to the South Pars refinery of phases 12 and 19 for stabilization.
The contract entails drilling eight production wells, construction and installation of two main and secondary wellhead platforms, construction of liquid separation facilities on the main platform, construction of a 36-inch offshore pipeline of approximately 230 km to transfer sour fluid from the main platform to onshore facilities, construction of a 10-inch offshore pipeline approximately 230 km long to transport condensate to land, construction of a 20-inch pipeline connecting the 3 platforms with a length of 3 km, construction of offshore facilities including receiving equipment for the produced sour fluid and condensate separation along with ancillary facilities and onshore pipelines for the transfer and distribution of sour gas and condensate to refineries located in the Pars 2 region.
According to the Pars Oil and Gas Company, the amount of in place gas at Farzad B Field is estimated at 23,000 billion cubic feet, with gas condensate estimated at 5,000 barrels per billion cubic feet of gas.
The Farzad B joint gas field is located in the Farsi bloc on the border between Iran and Saudi Arabia and at a distance of about 20 km from the Farsi island.
Petropars, Iran’s leading general contractor, inked a buyback deal with NIOC to produce 28 million cu m/d of sour gas over five years from reserves shared with Saudi Arabia. The gas condensates and sour gas produced will be sent to southern South Pars gas plants.
Farzad B’s gas in place is around 23 Tcf and its gas condensates amount to around 5,000 barrels/Bcf.
An ONGC Videsh-led consortium discovered Farzad B gas within the Farsi offshore gas block in 2008 together with Oil India and Indian Oil. The consortium had signed a preliminary exploration-development deal with Iran in 2000, while only the exploration was done. In 2016, Iran said it was examining the Indian proposal but that an agreement was unlikely because of the difference between Iran’s demanded gas price and India’s offer.
On the sidelines of the ceremony, veteran Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said he will not continue in his role once a new president is inaugurated after elections scheduled next month.
“I am retired.” said Zanganeh, 69, a technocrat politician with 20 years of service in various ministerial offices. “But I will remain in politics.”
His departure comes at a critical moment for Iran’s oil industry, which is poised to return unrestricted to the market pending an agreement on nuclear sanctions with international powers. Amid negotiations, Tehran has ratcheted up production in recent months and succeeded in finding customers from its crude in China, according to market sources.
