TEHRAN — Mine-sweeping operations at the Yadavaran Oilfield, southern Iran, will be launched as soon as possible, an Iranian senior oil official said here on Saturday.

Preliminaries to carry out mine-sweeping operations at the Yadavaran have been implemented and the operations will be launched in the near future, Mehdi Bazargan, the managing director of the Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC) said.

“Iran will start mine-sweeping at Yadavaran itself, but they will be delivered to Sinopec once the contract to develop the field is signed,” the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) quoted Bazargan as saying.

The official further noted that PEDEC and Sinopec have finalized technical issues of the Yadavaran development contract, however, he added, financial issues are yet to be negotiated.

Iran and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in October 2004 to develop Yadavaran Oilfield. In return for the development of the field, Sinopec is to buy 10 million tons of LNG (liquefied natural gas) from Iran at the cost of $10 billion for a 25-year period.

Being one of the world’s untapped oilfields, Yadavaran has over 17 billion barrels of in-situ crude oil plus 3 billion barrels of extractable crude. It could offer 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil within two phases. In addition, its proved reserves are estimated at 30 billion barrels.

Reuters on Wednesday reported the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) as saying that a deal for oil major Sinopec to develop Yadavaran field is being finalized for signing. On the Azadegan Oilfield development project, Bazargan said, “Given that Petroiran Development Company (PEDCO) is the subcontractor of the Azadegan project, Iranian companies keen on acting as EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) or E (engineering) contractor for the project should refer to Petroiran.”

Meanwhile, an official with the National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) here on Saturday voiced the readiness of NIDC to cooperate with Azadegan’s general contractor Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO).

“NIDC is prepared to carry its drilling rigs to the Azadegan Oilfield and cooperate on the drilling operations,” Hedayatollah Khademi, member of the Board of Directors at the NIDC told the Mehr News Agency.

In recent negotiations between Iranian and Japanese officials, the share of Japan’s Inpex — previous contractor of the Azadegan project — was reduced to 10 percent from 75 percent.

Currently, 90 percent of the Azadegan share is held by an NIOC marketing subsidiary NICO. FK/MA END MNA