TEHRAN - Iran will double the number of drilling rigs at the joint Iranian-Iraqi Azadegan and Yadavaran oilfields, the managing director of the National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) stated.

 

Heidar Bahmani said there are currently four drilling rigs in operation at the two oilfields and the NIDC will commission another four in next few days, the Shan News Agency reported on Saturday.

  

The Azadegan field’s in-situ deposits are estimated to be around 33.2 billion barrels, of which 5.2 billion barrels are recoverable.

 

The Yadavaran field holds approximately 12 billion barrels of in-situ crude oil, some 12.5 trillion cubic feet of associated gases, as well as nearly 1.9 billion barrels of condensates.

 

A Chinese company has invested $20 billion in the Yadavaran and Azadegan oilfields, which are projected to produce 700,000 barrels of oil per day when they reach peak capacity, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi announced on July 8.

 

“After 10 to 15 years of negotiations with the Chinese side, agreements were struck for the development of the Azadegan and Yadavaran fields, and now the Chinese have started their activities in the fields with 20 billion dollars of investment,” Qasemi said. 

 

Twelve contracts have been signed for the development of joint Iraq-Iranian oil and gas fields, and the development of the Azar and Changouleh fields and some others has already begun, he noted.

 

Qasemi said in August 2011 that the Iranian government should consider plans for the development of joint oilfields in the border areas with Iraq. 

 

The government should increase the budgets for the development of joint oilfields, Qasemi added. The oil industry's infrastructure needs more than 500 trillion rials (about $41 billion) of investment to achieve its objectives under the 20-Year Outlook Plan, which ends in 2025, Qasemi was quoted as saying.