TEHRAN- South Azadegan oilfield is located 80 kilometers west of Ahvaz (the capital city of Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province), near the Iraqi border.

The oil reserves in this field are estimated to be around 25.34 billion barrels, and the recoverable oil is estimated to be around 1.7 billion barrels, taking into account the recovery factor of 6.6 percent.

The development process of the South Azadegan oilfield is done in the form of two development phases, that according to the targeting, the production in this field is supposed to reach 600,000 barrels per day.

South Azadegan is one of the five major oilfields Iran shares with Iraq at the western part of Iran’s Karoun region, known as West Karoun fields.

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.

Having an estimated 67 billion barrels of in-situ oil, West Karoun fields definitely deserve the spotlight which has been put on them recently.

Through taking some major steps, such as supply of the main equipment, the development process of South Azadegan oilfield has been accelerated over the past year.

In early July, 2022, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the country’s major exploration and production companies, public and private banks, and financial institutions for the development of Azadegan oil field.

Based on the MOU which was signed by NIOC Head Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr and managers of the banks and domestic exploration and production companies, seven billion dollars will be invested in the field’s development project to increase its production capacity to 570,000 barrels per day.

“With an investment of nearly seven billion dollars, the production capacity of this field will reach 220,000 barrels per day in the second year of its development, and will reach 570,000 barrels of oil per day in the next seven years,” Oil Minister Javad Oji told the national TV at the time.

And in late August, Managing Director of Petropars Company Shamseddin Mousavi said the construction of South Azadegan oil field’s flowlines has reached 10 percent physical progress.

“The contractor for the construction and commissioning of the field’s wellhead facilities and flowlines has started the work on the project which has progressed about 10 percent so far,” Mousavi said.

He said all the necessary equipment used in the project including HIPP and Wellhead Control Panel are going to be manufactured by domestic companies and Petropars is currently negotiating with some manufacturers in this regard.

Mousavi further noted that negotiations are also underway with domestic companies for the cladding and coating of high-pressure pipes in this project, and emphasized that Petropars is determined to fulfill its commitment to early production in this field.

Al these measures led to the increase in the oil production from this field over the past year, as the managing director of Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), which is in charge of developing the West Karoun oilfields, has announced that daily production of oil from South Azadegan has increased by 45,000 barrels over the past year.

Abouzar Sharifi said with putting 36 wells into operation in South Azadegan field, the daily production capacity of this joint field increased by 45,000 barrels.

With the implementation of 120 km in the flowlines section and 25 km in the oil transfer pipelines section, the mechanical completion of five manifolds, as well as the start of operation of two manifolds in the past one year, the development of this field has accelerated and in the near future the goals of the development plan of the first stage of South Azadegan will be realized, he stated.

Declaring that the main challenge in the development of the field was the supply of the required basic goods, he added that with a lot of follow-ups, this company has managed to supply 200 km of pipes, as one of the most important events in this sector was the construction of the sour service flowline by HFW method completely domestically and for the first time in the country.