TEHRAN – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh inaugurated three major oil industry projects worth €5.569 billion in Ilam and Boushehr provinces during a virtual ceremony on Monday, Shana reported.

As reported, the minister officially inaugurated Azar Oil field development project in the western Ilam province and Kangan Petro-refinery’s ethane recovery unit in southwestern Boushehr province, while commencing the project for the construction of a petrochemical complex in Assaluyeh.

According to Zanganeh, over €2.6 billion has been invested in the Azar oil field development project and the ethane recovery unit of Kangan Petro-refinery.

The other project, namely Kian Petrochemical Complex in Assaluyeh, in Bushehr Province, is also worth about €3 billion.

According to Shana, the mentioned projects are going to create direct job opportunities for 2,125 people.

Speaking in the opening ceremony, Zanganeh mentioned the desirable state of the development projects in joint oil and gas fields and said: “Fortunately, we are in a good situation in all joint fields compared to our neighbors,”

"The production capacity of crude oil in the joint fields of west Karun region has increased from 70,000 barrels per day to 400,000 barrels,” the official added.

Mentioning the development of the Azar oil field, the minister said: “Over €1.4 billion of the investment made in this project has been returned from the revenues earned by the field’s oil output.”

Zanganeh put the cumulative production of the field since it went operational in the Iranian calendar year 1392 (started in March 2013) up to the current year at 36 million barrels.

The official further mentioned Kangan Petro-refinery project and said: “We had plans to inaugurate 17 petrochemical projects worth $11.4 billion and with a total capacity of 25 million tons in the current year; Kanhgan project, with an investment of nearly $1 billion and a production capacity of 3.5 million tons per year, is one of the mentioned projects.”

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