Underlining the necessity of investing $160 billion in the upstream and downstream sectors of the country’s oil industry within the next eight years, Owji said: “We will provide a major part of the $7 billion dollar for the Azadegan field development plan from banks, development companies and the National Development Fund of Iran.”

Speaking, in a meeting to present investment opportunities and the implementation mechanism of banks’ participation in the upstream projects, he acknowledged that the lack of investment in recent years due to the sanctions has indeed caused many problems in the field of oil and gas production capacity, refining and petrochemical products for the country, and said: “Unfortunately, in recent years, we have not been able to take advantage of the domestic financial capacities in the oil industry.”

Recalling that last year Iran was facing a deficit of 250 million cubic meters of gas at the height of the cold season, he said: “This is despite the fact that our country has the second largest gas reserves in the world, while supply of petroleum products has developed tantamount to consumption growth, so we should think about increasing the production capacity of petroleum products in the country.”

Addressing the executives of the country’s banks and financial institutions, he emphasized: “Undoubtedly, if proper investment had been made in the country’s oil and gas sector in recent years, the economic and livelihood situation of the country and the people would not have been what it is today. On the other hand, if we can invest in the country’s refining projects and turn crude oil into products with higher added value, we can completely prevent crude oil sales.”

He underlined the ease of exporting petroleum and petrochemical products and even pre-sale of these products, and added: “If there were better investments in these two areas in recent years, the country would benefit more.”

Owji  said: “One of the major goals and concerns of the 13th administration is the integration of domestic technical and economic capacities to advance strategic projects in the oil industry. In this regard, last year, 45 memorandums and contracts were signed in the upstream and downstream sectors worth more than $16 billion using domestic resources. This year, half-finished projects of the country’s oil industry worth 13 billion dollars will be put into operation according to a specific schedule using domestic resources and a consortium of domestic banks.”

He underlined that attraction of $4.5 billion of foreign capital in the projects of the country’s oil and gas industry in the calendar year of 1400 which ended on March 20, and said: “Two attractive investment packages in the upstream and downstream sectors have been prepared for foreign investors, which we hope will lead to a contract soon.”

Emphasizing that in order to ensure the country’s energy security, investment in the country’s oil and gas projects should be transformed as soon as possible, he said: “Based on the coordination with the economic groups of the administration, we plan to take advantage of the financial power of the country’s economic giants (holdings), domestic banks and people’s contributions for the advancement of the country’s oil and gas projects.”

The Oil Minister further pointed to the joint Azadegan oil field (North and South) as the largest joint oil field between Iran and Iraq, and said: “Right now, Iraq is developing and producing from this field by taking advantage of the power of companies such as BP and Shell, while we produce only about 190,000 barrels/day from this field.”

Saying that the National Iranian Oil Company has prepared a good master plan for the development of new phases of the North and South Azadegan fields by using the data and studies of domestic and foreign companies, Owji said: “As an expert in oil and gas reservoirs, I say that considering the high capacity of this field, it is realistic to expect a production level of over 590,000 barrels per day from this field.”

Referring to the negotiations of the National Iranian Oil Company with 5 or 6 companies, a large domestic bank and the National Development Fund of Iran for an investment of $7 billion in the Azadegan field, he said: “According to the planning, many wells are going to be drilled in this field.”

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“The cement used in oil wells drilling operations is one of the necessities used in the oil industry, and the Mostazafan Foundation has succeeded in producing this strategic product,” Mehr News Agency quoted Hashem Nezam-Abadi as saying.

This type of cement, which is currently being produced in one of the factories belonging to the Mostazafan Foundation, has a unique quality and meets the needs of the Iranian drilling industry, Nezam-Abadi said.

He said with the production of this product, the imports of the item will be stopped, adding: “At present, the company produces the mentioned cement with different grades (A, B, D, E, G) and considering the level of production, the company can both meet the domestic market demand and also export to other countries.”

According to the official, the grade E cement produced by the mentioned company is used in deep drilled wells and for high-pressure operations and Iran is currently the only country in the region that has the knowledge to produce this grade of cement.

The Mostazafan Foundation of Islamic Revolution is the second-largest commercial enterprise in Iran behind the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

Kaveh Pars is a mining industry holding operating under the Mostazafan Foundation. The holding consists of 23 subsidiaries in six fields, including six cement companies, four steel companies, one aluminum company, two mining companies, and seven engineering, consulting, and trading services companies as well as three construction and transportation services companies.

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It would be the second major oil field after NIOC announced the discovery of the Namavaran oil field last month.

“Based on researches and reports, the site of another oil field similar to Namavaran will be identified in Khuzestan by the end of the year” on March 21, director of NIOC’s exploration department Saleh Hendi said on Tuesday.

Namavaran discovered by Iranian exports in the country’s second-largest reservoir, containing an estimated 53 billion barrels of reserves, Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said last month. Iran’s largest oil field contains 65 billion barrels and is located in Ahvaz.

The newly-discovered field adds 22.2 billion barrels to the country’s estimated crude reserves estimated by the Oil & Gas Journal at 158 billion barrels.

In October, NIOC said it had discovered a massive onshore gas field in the country’s south after a year of exploration.

The site is estimated to house enough energy to power all homes in Tehran – a city of more than 12 million people – for 16 years, reports said at the time.

The reservoir was found in the Ilam and Gurpi formations which are extended in the provinces of Khuzestan, Lorestan, and Fars.

The Gurpi Formation is one of the most important lithostratigraphic units in the Zagros foreland basin because of its significance in the petroleum geology of Iran as the source rock.

Iranian officials have said the country is pressing ahead with its energy development plans despite intensified US sanctions which seek to cripple the country.

Hendi said on Tuesday NIOC had defined 12 projects in oil- and gas-bearing zones across the country. “Oil and gas is likely to be discovered in these 12 projects, of which five are in priority for implementation and seven others are under study,” he said.

Last December, Hendi said some 35-40 new hydrocarbon reservoirs had been discovered across Iran, which needed development. “We are now ranked first in the world for oil and gas reserves,” he said.

Hendi also said Iran was scouring 60 percent of its total area for new oil and gas reserves, including in places that were deemed until recently the least likely to have hydrocarbon-bearing formations.

On Tuesday, he said Iran has enough oil and gas for the next 100 years.

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According to the head of Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC)’s Research and Technology Department, based on an agreement signed between the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the University of Tehran for conducting knowledge-based studies on the field, the institute has outlined several strategies for increasing the Azadegan oil field recovery factor.

Implementing injection methods for the reservoirs of Sarvak, Kazhdomi, Gadvan, and Fahliyan, based on a priority pattern of water injection, intermittent injection of water and gas as well as gas injection, respectively, could increase the field’s recovery factor by about 10 percent, Hojat Norouzi said.

The official announced the creation of Azadegan oilfield’s first comprehensive data bank (includes South Azadegan and North Azadegan) as a result of close collaboration between PEDEC and the University of Tehran.

The data bank includes integrated information on the field’s reservoirs like Sarvak, Kazhdomi, Gadvan, and Fahliyan, and PEDEC provided the Institute of Petroleum Engineering with more than two terabytes of data on the South and North Azadegan fields’ development plans for the creation of the data bank, Norouzi said.

South and North Azadegan are among the five major oilfields Iran shares with Iraq at the western part of Iran’s southwestern region of Karoun, known as West Karoun fields.

West Karoun holds great importance for the country’s oil industry since according to the latest studies, its in-situ deposit is estimated to be 67 billion barrels containing both light and heavy crude oils, and therefore it could have a big impact on Iran’s oil output increases in the future.

With the fields fully operational, their output could add 1.2 million bpd to the country’s oil production capacity.

Having an estimated 67 billion barrels of in-situ oil, West Karoun fields definitely deserve the spotlight which has been put on them recently.

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According to Esmail Qolampour Ahangar, five new wells and an assessment well are planned to be drilled in the field in order to maintain the field’s recovery factor after the fifth and sixth years of production.

Three years have passed since North Azadegan oil field started production, the official said.

Regarding the plans for increasing the field’s output, Ahangar noted that in addition to drilling the mentioned six wells, plans have been made for overhauling the already active wells in order to increase the field’s recovery factor.

He added that for the time being, the developers are using the “Gas Lift” procedure in the wells of North Azadegan field to improve the recovery factor and maintain the production level.

West Karoun oilfields, which Iran shares with Iraq at the western part of Iran’s southwestern region of Karoun, include five major fields namely North Azadegan, South Azadegan, North Yaran, South Yaran and Yadavaran.

West Karoun holds great importance for the country’s oil industry since according to the latest studies, its in-situ deposit is estimated to be 67 billion barrels containing both light and heavy crude oils, and therefore it could have a big impact on Iran’s oil output increases in the future.

With the fields fully operational, their output could add 1.2 million bpd to the country’s oil production capacity.

Back in October, Reza Dehqan, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)’s deputy of development and engineering affairs, said production of oil from West Karoun oilfields is expected to increase by 10,000 bpd by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 19, 2020).

Referring to Azadegan oil field, the official said we have no plans to cooperate with any Chinese company in the South Azadegan and this field is expected to be developed by an Iranian company, however CNPC is already working on North Azadegan and the field is operational.

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Ali Kardor, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), was quoted by the domestic media as saying that the companies included Total, Royal/Dutch Shell, CNPC and Inpex.

Kardor emphasized that the NIOC was already studying the studies presented by the companies. He added that several more had requested more time to present their technical evaluations over Azadegan, but did not name them.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh announced earlier this week that the tender proceedings over the project – known as Iran’s biggest oil find in decades – had already started.

Zanganeh also said that if things proceed as normal, a deal over Azadegan was likely to be sealed before next summer.

Iran discovered Azadegan oil field in the oil-rich southwestern province of Khouzestan in 1999 in what was the country’s biggest oil find in decades.  The country accordingly teamed up with Inpex to push the project toward development.  However, the Japanese company later quit the project in what appeared to be the result of US sanctions against Iran.

The NIOC later divided the project into South Azadegan and North Azadegan and both were awarded to China’s CNPC when Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013) was in office.

The media reported in 2014 that Zangeneh had sidelined CNPC from South Azadegan due to its protracted delays in developing the field.

South Azadegan is believed to hold an in-place oil reserve of about 33.2 billion barrels and its recoverable resources estimated at about 5.2 billion barrels.

Azadegan is shared with Iraq, and Iran is in a race with its neighbor to develop the reservoir.  Royal/Dutch Shell has developed the Iraqi stretch of the reservoir, known as Majnoon oil field in the southern city of Basra.

Majnoon came into production in 2014.

Iraq is pumping between 220,000 and 230,000 bpd from Majnoon, nearly three times over the Azadegan output, according to a report by Xinhua news agency.

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