TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC) said the company will start developing two Iranian oil fields under the country’s new model of oil contracts (known as IPC) soon and another field is also expected to be awarded to PEDEC in near future, IRNA reported on Monday.

“Currently, developing Sepehr and Jufair as well as Aban and Paydar-e Gharb oilfields under the IPC contracts are on the company’s agenda. It is also expected that the implementation of the integrated development project for Yaran field will also be awarded to PEDEC in the near future,” Mohammad Reza Asadi said.

According to the official, technical discussions related to the integrated development of South- and North-Yaran oilfields have been conducted with an Iranian company, and it is expected that its IPC contract will be signed soon.

National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a contract with Pasargad Energy Development Company (PEDC) for the integrated development project of Sepehr and Jufair fields in March 2018, assigning PEDEC as the project supervisor.

After the implementation of JCPOA in January 2016, Iranian government put it on the short term agenda to hastily increase its oil production to reclaim its oil market share lost to the fellow OPEC members due to the restrictions imposed by the West.

In this regard and following new policies for attracting foreign investors to develop the country’s fields, in 2016 Iran introduced the Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC), which replaced the old buyback model.

In March 2016, NIOC signed a deal with a consortium comprising Russia’ Zarubezhneft Company and Iran’s Dana Energy Company for developing Aban and Paydar-e Gharb oilfields in west of Iran.

However, after U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal and reimpostion of sanctions on Iran’s oil industry most of the foreign companies were forced to leave Iran or face harsh sanctions.
In March 2019, NIOC announced that the project for development of Yaran Oilfield was studied by the National Iranian Oil Company.

Yaran is one of the five oilfields known as West Karoun oilfields which Iran shares with Iraq at the western part of Iran’s southwestern region of Karoun. The field, which is divided into two parts namely North Yaran and South Yaran, lies 120 kilometers west of Ahwaz, the capital city of southwestern province of Khuzestan, on the border line with Iraq.

Since the reimposition of sanctions, Iran has been encouraging private sector’s presence in its oil and gas projects, both in exploration and in development.

In development sector, as there are many exploration blocks waiting for implementation of projects, NIOC is seriously following up the plans to lay the ground for the private sector’s contribution.

EF/MA