TEHRAN - The first phase of Azar oil field’s development project, in western Iran, is nearly completed and will be inaugurated officially in near future, the managing director of Iran's Oil Industries Engineering and Construction Company (OIEC) said.

“Considering the 97-percent progress of the first phase of this joint field’s development project, it will be ready for official inauguration soon,” Gholamreza Manouchehri said.

The official put the total investment made in this joint field at €1.4 billion, noting that the deal for the development of the field was signed between the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and a consortium comprised of OIEC and Ahdaf Finance Company in September 2011.

According to Manouchehri, the production from the field began in February 2017 with a daily production of 15,000 barrels.

“This figure reached 30,000 barrels per day in 2018, and now the production of this joint field has reached 65,000 barrels per day, which is very significant.”

The major part of the project's financial resources came from the National Development Fund (NDF) and the rest was supplied by OIEC, he said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Manouchehri mentioned the conducting of performance tests in this field, saying all the wells and facilities of the field’s first development phase have been put into operation since December 14, 2020, to be tested for potential problems.

During this 28-day pilot period the field’s output will be 65,000 barrels per day (bpd), the official added.

Under the first phase plan, 18 wells have been drilled in the field, all of which are completed, the official said.

Azar, one of the joint fields with Iraq, spans an overall area of 482 square kilometers in southeast of Mehran town in the western Iranian province of Ilam.

The field is estimated to hold 2.5 billion barrels of oil in place. The volume of possible oil reserves to be extracted from the Azar field is estimated to be around 400 million barrels.

EF/MA