TEHRAN - Iran’s biggest contracts in the past decade worth over $13 billion were signed on Sunday in the presence of Oil Minister Javad Oji, First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, and the Head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr.

The contracts, inked on the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, are aimed at developing six oil fields and adding 350,000 barrels of oil to the country’s daily production by relying on domestic expertise.

The first contract was for the development of Iran’s largest joint oil field, Azadegan, which had been left undecided for years.

Azadegan oil field is located in West Karoun, 80 kilometers west of Ahvaz in the vicinity of Iraq’s Majnoon field.

The Azadegan field development project is ongoing with the drilling of 185 new wells, out of which 60 were recently put into operation during a ceremony attended by Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi in southwestern Khuzestan Province.

At present, the oil extracted from the field each day is processed at the West Karoun exploitation unit and carried to the West Karoun pumping station.

The second deal was for the second phase of the Azar oil field development project.

Azar is a complicated field in terms of geological structure, making the drilling operations extremely challenging. Azar oil field is located in Ilam Province, western Iran.

The third contract was for the development of the second phase of the Masjed Soleyman oil field.

Masjed Soleyman, which is home to the oldest oil field in Iran and the Middle East, is located in Khuzestan Province.

CNPC International (CNPCI), a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, carried out the first phase of the project under a buyback contract and the Iranian experts will do the job in the second phase, indicating Iran’s progress in the exploration and production (E&P) field in the upstream sector of the oil industry.

Masjed Soleyman’s oil in place (OIP) is estimated at 6.2 billion barrels.

It was May 26, 1908, when oil gushed out from Well No. 1 in Masjed Soleyman. So far, around 1.3 billion barrels of oil have been recovered from the field.

Contracts on Soumar, Saman, Delavaran fields development

The contracts for the development, production, and exploitation of Soumar, Saman, and Delavaran fields located in the operational area of the Iranian Central Oil Fields Company (ICOFC), western Iran, were also signed according to the terms and conditions of the Oil Ministry’s new contract model, namely the Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC).

The implementation of these contracts is going to create 66,000 direct and indirect jobs and during the completion of the deals, $250 million will also be spent on social responsibilities.

Iran’s oil industry has been strongly focused on developing joint oil and gas fields, aiming to increase the share of such fields in the country’s oil and gas production.

West Karoun oil fields, which Iran shares with Iraq in the western part of Iran’s southwestern region of Karoun, include five major fields namely North Azadegan, South Azadegan, North Yaran, South Yaran, and Yadavaran.

West Karoun holds great importance for the country’s oil industry since according to the latest studies, its in-situ deposit is estimated to be 67 billion barrels containing both light and heavy crude oils, and therefore it could have a big impact on Iran’s oil output increases in the future.

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