The Arash gas field or Durra gas field is a natural gas field located on the maritime borders of Iran, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. It was discovered in 1967. It began production in 2013 and produces natural gas and condensates.

Speaking on the sidelines of the first conference and exhibition of technology management of knowledge-based products in Iran’s oil industry in Tehran, Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr said that although Kuwait and Saudi Arabia signed a MoU for developing Arash gas field, Iran is ahead of them in planning for oil and gas production and the company has required approval and allocated resources for starting the drilling operation in this field.

He also announced the company’s plan to increase the country’s gas production capacity by 500 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) by 2029.

“Our dear people should know that the employees of the oil industry are in the true sense of the word doing jihadi work to bring prosperity, comfort and warmth to them,” said Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr.

He also touched on the pressure boosting plan of South Pars Gas Field: “Design, engineering and implementation of pressure boosting for sour gas is a new issue in the world and even the neighboring countries, like us, is in the first stage, that is, design.”

Stating that the NIOC has important plans for increasing pressure of the South Pars joint gas field, he added: “Conceptual and basic engineering studies for implementation of the pressure boosting project are in the form of a pilot, and the conceptual and basic studies have already been completed and the design of the turbo compressor to compress gas has progressed 70%.”

The deputy oil minister pointed out that in parallel with the implementation of this pilot, the basic engineering work of all phases of South Pars for different hubs is being done, and God willing, these studies will be completed by the beginning of the next Iranian calendar year to March 2023.

Khojasteh-Mehr further announced that gas from Phase 11 of South Pars was to come online in the near future as it is regarded as NIOC’s top priority.

He noted that the company is keen to use capacities of the knowledge-based companies provided that it leads to rise in production and enhancing the production output.

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Speaking in a ceremony, Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr said that the country is on the eve of entering the winter and his colleagues in the company do their best and produce over 1b cubic meters of gas per day and there is maximum readiness to bring relative comfort for the people in this winter.

He added that development of South Azadegan Oil Field is underway with full speed, adding that one of the important priorities of the company is maximum production and fast development in all joint oil and gas fields.

He also said that some of the EPD and EPC projects are in the exploitation phase, adding that last week recovery from Esfand and Sivan fields started with daily recovery of 16,000 barrels and they are ready for official exploitation.

Khojasteh-Mehr went on to say that some other projects will officially be exploited in February, adding that these days they witness the maximum volume of operation in the joint South Pars gas field and last week a valuable experience was gained and one of the biggest gas platforms of South Pars was removed with maximum precision and this 4,000-ton platform will be soon installed in B11 position and this is considered a symbolic act from the company.

He then pointed to several operations are underway in Assalouyeh and the Persian Gulf, adding that drilling of four wells of the development project of Phase 11 of joint South Pars gas field  is in the final stage and its offshore pipelines have been completed and soon gas recovery from the Phase 11 will start.

He also said that the pipeline of the Phase 16 of South Pars is being completed. He went on to say that drilling of 70 wells in the South Pars field is of the major prioritized plans of the company.

On boosting the pressure of the gas fields in South Pars, he said that the studies for it have started with cooperation of a foreign company and Iranian companies are advancing the engineering activities of the project.

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NIOC’s official selling price increase affected three grades of Iranian oil namely Light, Heavy and Forouzan.

The NIOC has set the September OSP of Iranian Light grade for Asia at $9.5 a barrel above the Oman/Dubai average, up $0.6 from the previous month.

The prices for Iranian Heavy and Forouzan grades are also set to be $6.3 and $6.4 above the Oman/Dubai average, respectively.

The September OSPs for heavy and Forouzan grades have increased by $0.7 and $0.75 compared to the prices for the previous month, respectively.

Iran has been shipping its oil into the global markets successfully despite the U.S. sanctions and over the past year, the export of Iranian crude oil increased significantly.

Considering the increase in exports, NIOC has also been ramping up production so that according to Oil Minister Javad Oji, the country’s oil production has increased almost to the pre-sanctions level.

Back in April, Oji had said that the country’s crude oil production reached the pre-sanction levels.

Putting the current capacity of Iran’s oil production at more than 3.8 million barrels per day (bpd), the minister said, “We hope that through the efforts of all those active in this sector, we will reach higher figures in the exports of crude oil, gas condensate, oil products, and petrochemicals.”

“By taking effective measures in onshore and offshore oil fields, drilling new wells, repairing wells, rebuilding and modernizing facilities, and oil collection centers, the current oil production capacity has reached before the sanctions, and we have no problem in performance and this amount of production”, Oji added.

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The document was signed during an online ceremony on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 by NIOC CEO Mohsen Khojastehmehr and Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee.

The development of Kish and North Pars gas fields, pressure enhancement of South Pars field, development of 6 oil fields, gas and product swap, completion of LNG projects, construction of gas export pipelines and other scientific and technological cooperation are among the most important highlights of the memorandum.

The relations between Iran and Russia under the 13th administration have been put on a new path with the support of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the two countries want to expand relations at all economic and political grounds.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Khojasteh-Mehr said signing the memorandum with Gazprom can be considered one of the biggest foreign investments in the history of Iran’s oil industry.

“The National Iranian Oil Company does not ignore any investment opportunity,” the NIOC head said.

He noted that Iran and the Russian Federation are determined to secure and increase strategic cooperation in various fields, saying: “Promotion of economic relations and attracting investment in oil and gas industries is emphasized by President Ebrahim Raisi and fully supported by Oil Minister Javad Owji.”

Referring to the meeting with the senior managers of Gazprom during his recent trip to St. Petersburg, Khojasteh-Mehr said: “Following that visit, Gazprom managers also visited Tehran last week at the order of Russian President Vladimir Putin and we had some constructive negotiations.”

“We hope that after signing this memorandum, technical and economic negotiations will start in the shortest possible time under the framework of the mechanism considered by both sides,” the official added.

The NIOC head further mentioned his company’s plans for attracting $160 billion of investment in the country’s oil and gas industries, saying that this investment is going to be used to increase the country’s oil and gas production.

Currently, we have implemented projects worth four billion dollars with various Russian companies, he said.

Elsewhere in the online ceremony, Markelov pointed to the NIOC as one of the key companies in Iran and said: “The areas of cooperation between us are very broad, and today we are signing a memorandum of understanding for the development of oil and gas fields, gas pipelines, technology development, and transfer, etc.”

The relations between Iran and Russia have been put on a new path with the support of President Raisi and Putin, and the two countries are taking new strategic measures to expand relations at all economic and political levels.

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Mentioning a 40-percent increase in the country’s oil exports over the past few months, Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr told IRNA that: “This increase in exports has been both due to having new destinations and new customers and also the hard work carried out for reviving part of the traditional markets.”

noted that the Oil Ministry is also going to modify the process of offering crude oil at the country’s energy exchange known as the IRENEX.

He noted that new negotiations have also been underway for attracting investment for the country’s oil industry projects which have mostly been focused on domestic investors, and solutions such as the issuance of commodity deposit certificates for selling oil on the energy exchange are also on the agenda.

Khojasteh-Mehr said NIOC plans to use all the resources available in the country in order to neutralize the U.S. sanctions and this is what the policies related to the resistance economy are.

Asked about NIOC’s long-term plans for increasing the country’s oil production to 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd), the official said: “The estimate for achieving a production capacity of 5.7 million barrels of oil per day is realistic and based on the production potential of Iran’s oil reservoirs and has a scientific basis.”

Of course, to achieve this production level, $90 billion of investment is needed. We plan to use the maximum domestic financing capacity in the first place, while foreign companies can also invest in the implementation of the country’s development projects, and we do not rule out the presence of foreign companies.

Back in April, the Wall Street Journal reported that Iran has been boosting oil exports in the current year as major oil buyers like China are cutting back imports from Russia due to the war with Ukraine.

Based on the report, Iranian oil exports increased by 30 percent in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the previous year, to reach 870,000 bpd.

The jump in Iran’s oil exports in Q1 was the fastest among all producers in West Asia, while the volume of exports is estimated to be the highest since former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the so-called Iranian nuclear deal in 2018, the report said.

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The center is established with the aim of collecting, assessing, and displaying online information on the production, distribution, and foreign trade of oil, gas, gas condensate, petroleum products, and naphtha.

As reported, the inauguration ceremony was also attended by the NIOC Managing Director Masoud Karbasian and NIOC’s Deputy Head Farrokh Alikhani, as well as other oil industry officials.

Speaking at the event, Alikhani who was the executive director of the monitoring center project, noted that all the processes related to the production and distribution of major oil and gas products are displayed online in this monitoring center.

According to Alikhani having access to up-to-date information and data in the oil industry will pave the way for making optimal decisions in various areas.

“In the monitoring center of the National Iranian Oil Company, all information related to oil and gas production and its quantity and quality as well as the processes related to supply and distribution are fully collected and displayed online at any time,” he explained.

Based on the information collected in this center, the share of each province, city, and even facilities in the country’s oil and gas production is known and this information can help the NIOC determine the share of each facility in the oil and gas production process and set priorities for reconstruction and renovation operations, accordingly.

According to Alikhani, the monitoring center of the National Iranian Oil Company also provides the ability to determine the amount of production in desired time periods making it possible to compare production in different time periods with each other.

Referring to the important position of the National Iranian Oil Company in the country’s economy, Alikhani pointed to the establishment of such a center as an inevitable necessity and expressed hope that with the addition of information from the downstream sectors, the center will play a more effective role in the oil industry in the future.

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Regarding the storage tanks of the Goreh-Jask oil pipeline project, Abdollah Ahmadi said that 20 tanks, each with 500,000 barrels capacity, with a total storage capacity of 10 million barrels will be set up in Jask.

On July 22, Iran started pumping oil into Goreh-Jask strategic pipeline. The project was officially inaugurated by a direct order from President Hassan Rouhani via videoconference.

The national and strategic project for the transfer of crude oil from Goreh in southwestern Bushehr province to Jask terminal in southern Hormozgan province, with the support and leadership of the Ministry of Oil and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was implemented benefiting from the highest domestic capabilities.

Goreh-Jask pipeline project is going to provide Iran with an alternative route for the country’s crude oil exports that are currently carried out through the Strait of Hormuz. The pipeline will open a new gate for Iranian oil to the Indian Ocean by transferring it from Goreh in Bushehr Province to Jask on the shores of Oman Gulf.

Implementation of this project took place with about $2 billion investment, and with the aim of creating a daily export capacity of one million barrels of crude oil through the new Jask terminal, ensuring continued oil exports, decentralization of export terminals and diversification of oil export  centers, sustainable development and job creation on the shores of Makran, where a capacity of 300,000 barrels of oil (per day) has been provided so far, and this capacity will gradually increase to one million barrels in the near future.

The share of more than 90 percent of domestic manufacturing and maximum use of the power of Iranian contractors and manufacturers is one of the most important features of this national plan; 250 contractors and domestic manufacturers have participated in the project’s implementation and by relying on domestic capabilities, the equipment and goods required for the project were manufactured domestically for the first time in the country.

Another notable feature that stands out in this national plan is building about 1,000 kilometers of crude oil transmission pipeline and putting it into operation in less than two years, with full reliance on domestic capabilities.

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According to the NIDC’s Director of Renovation and Upgrading Shahram Shamipour, the renovation and upgrading operations are aimed at improving the performance of these rigs which are active in the country’s oil and gas field development projects, Shana reported.

Shamipour noted that the equipment going through renovation operations include fluid pumps, draw-works machinery, charting tools, pumps for cementing and acidizing trucks, tow trucks, cranes, piping machines, generators, hydrogen sulfide gas treatment systems, acid-coated storage tanks, and cement transport bunkers.

In this due, the company is going to sign deals with domestic companies for the renovation of more than 220 pieces of equipment related to drilling rigs, technical services, transportation, special services, tools in circulation, and safety, health, and environment, according to Shamipour.

The official noted that of the allocated figure, so far, 1.3 trillion rials (about $30.95 million) has been spent which has led to the signing of eight deals with domestic companies.

Considering the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)’s new strategies for strengthening the presence of domestic companies in the development of the country’s oil fields, NIDC, as a major subsidiary of the company, has been supporting such companies by lending them drilling rigs and other necessary equipment.

According to Babak Zanganeh, director of consolidated planning at NIDC, the company dug and completed the digging operation of 17 oil and gas wells during the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21– May 21), an official with the company said.

NIDC owns 70 light, heavy and super-heavy drilling rigs, including 67 onshore drilling rigs and three offshore rigs, Zanganeh said.

“Currently, 25 drilling rigs of the company are being relocated in the onshore operational areas of the country”, he added.

NIDC managed to carry out 10,182 meters of horizontal and directional drilling in 43 oil and gas wells across the country during the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), according to the Head of NIDC’s Special Operations Department Ali Daqayeqi.

Some 654 meters of core extraction drilling was also conducted in the mentioned period which was a huge achievement for assessing the condition of the country’s oil and gas reserves.

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Iran and other signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), are currently negotiating the revival of the mentioned pact from which Donald Trump had withdrawn the U.S. in 2018.

The withdrawal of the U.S. from the nuclear deal was the beginning of a new round of sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s oil industry that pushed the country to reduce its oil production levels as its major oil customers pressured by the U.S. refused to continue buying Iranian oil.

According to unofficial data, Iran is currently pumping nearly 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, while the country’s output was about 3.83 million bpd in mid-2018.

Now, the country is once again getting ready to boost its oil output to the pre-sanction levels to claim its market share seized by other competitors in the region. In this regard numerous production enhancement projects underway across the country have been ordered to accelerate the operations in order to finish the projects earlier than scheduled.

Having confidence on the above-mentioned projects and planning, senior Iranian oil officials, including Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, have repeatedly stressed that NIOC is fully prepared to return to the oil market.

“We can easily reach [an output of] 6.5 million barrels per day,” Zanganeh said at a ceremony to award studies on the country’s giant Azadegan oil field on May 31.

Earlier this month, NIOC’s Deputy Director for Production Affairs Farrokh Alikhani also said: “Precise weekly, monthly and quarterly planning has been made to restore oil production to pre-sanctions level, and if sanctions are lifted, most of the country’s oil production will be restored within a month,”

After the re-imposition of sanctions against the country, NIOC prepared a plan for production control, in parallel, programs for production restoration were also put on the agenda, and plans were made to revive production at one week, one month, and quarterly intervals, Alikhani explained.

As mentioned by the official, NIOC’s plans for restoring production have been set way before the recent developments, and the country has been preparing for a strong return to the oil market as earlier as 2019.

In January 2019, NIOC started a $6.2 billion national program based on which recovery enhancement deals were to be signed with local firms to boost oil production by 355,000 bpd at 33 fields.

The first group of such projects worth $800 million were signed that month to increase the country’s oil production by 75,000 bpd.

A second group including 13 fields was awarded in August 2020 to Iranian companies with a total investment of $1.7 billion, to raise oil output further by 185,000 bpd.

These contracts were inked by two NIOC subsidiaries namely the Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) and the National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC), as employers, and 13 domestic companies for the maintenance of the production level and increasing recovery factor of several oil fields.

The third group of deals worth €1.2 billion were also signed between IOOC and NISOC, as employers, and eight Iranian companies for the maintenance of the production level and increasing recovery factor of several other oil fields.

In one of these projects IOOC has implemented a pilot enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project in which a nanofluid has been injected into an oilfield in southern Iran for the first time to boost its recovery factor.

The high-tech project was unveiled in a ceremony attended by officials from IOOC, NIOC, and Iran’s Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) in late May.

In this pilot project, 18,000 barrels of nanofluid were injected into one of the wells of Belal oil field in Hormozgan Province.

As the NIOC’s research body, RIPI has been tasked to fully support the local firms that are currently working on the country’s oil fields in order to provide them with the latest knowledge and technologies in the field.

On Monday, the head of RIPI’s Petroleum Engineering Research Department said the institute has been working on the world’s latest EOR techniques to come up with the best possible methods for boosting the output of the country’s oil fields at the shortest possible time.

According to Abbas Shahrabadi, oilfield development and recovery enhancement projects are carried out according to a clear and comprehensive roadmap, and RIPI, like other reputable companies in the world, uses such a roadmap to carry out recovery enhancement projects.

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As reported, the two sides have agreed in the meeting to strongly pursue the issue and take necessary measures for the resumption of oil and gas cooperation between the two countries.

According to Ortiz, the negotiations will be a follow-up on the agreement reached between Bolivian oilfields company [Yacimientos Petrolferos Fiscales Bolivianos or YPFB] and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) back in 2007.

NIOC and YPFB are also considering the signing of major cooperation agreements in the fields of research and technology in the future, the Bolivian newspaper reported.

Iran and Bolivia have resumed diplomatic relations in late 2020 after more than a year.

Bolivia’s new president, Luis Arce, has made good on his pledge to restore relations with Iran and Venezuela a few days after he assumed office. During a formal ceremony in La Paz in November 2020, President Arce received the credentials of the new ambassadors of Iran and Venezuela, reestablishing diplomatic relations damaged by the previous de-facto government led by interim president Jeanine Anez, according to a statement issued by Bolivia’s government.

The restoration of diplomatic ties between Tehran and La Paz came two days after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attended Arce’s swearing-in ceremony as part of a tour of several Latin American nations that included Venezuela and Cuba.

The chief Iranian diplomat visited Bolivia in early November 2020 and was received by the speaker of the Bolivian parliament. He met with Luis Arce and later participated in his swearing-in ceremony.

Following his victory in Bolivia’s presidential election, Arce vowed to re-establish all relations.

“We are going to re-establish all relations. This government has acted very ideologically, depriving the Bolivian people of access to Cuban medicine, Russian medicine, and advances in China. For a purely ideological issue, it has exposed the population in a way unnecessary and harmful,” Arce said.

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