in Talks with Foreigners Iran to Renovate
Caspian Sea Fleet
Ali Osooli, CEO of Khazar Exploration and Production Company (KEPCO),says the company is still in talks with leading European firms forcooperation in the Caspian Sea despite US threats to penalizethem. He, however, says KEPCO is also able to pushahead with its development activities in the Caspian
Sea even without cooperating with foreigncompanies, as was the case with the “Sardare-Jangal” oil find in 2012, when Iran wasunder tough oil sanctions. The impactof US sanctions on Iran’s oil industryis not ignorable, but the experience of
working four years under sanctionshas shown that Iran has never stoppedits activities. The following is the textof “Iran Petroleum” interview withOsooli about KEPCO’s activities:In the event of success of talks with foreigncompanies, shall they do platform overhaultoo?
Yes, one of our main items in talks with foreigncompanies is to carry out overhaul of platformsand vessels. If we planned to follow up on thereparation of talks alone we would have concluded acontract for development activities. Some renowned
companies had visited us and presented theirjob description, but NIOC policy has been doingoverhaul alongside developing oil fields of theCaspian Sea.
To what extent is the involvement of foreigncompanies necessary in the Caspian Sea?In any case, it would be impossible to disregardthe experience of leading internationalcompanies with experience in deep waters.Cooperation with such companies will reducethe required costs and time while boostingproductivity. There is currently ground forcooperation with foreigners in the Caspian Sea
thanks to the facilities made available by NIOC.We are also ready to negotiate with leadinginternational companies in deep waters in favorof national interests. Of course, there are talksunder way with top international firms.Do you mean that activitiesin the Caspian Sea nowdepend on the negotiationswith domestic and foreignfirms?No, not at all! We are currentlyconducting many activities in the
Caspian Sea. First and foremost,we are renovating KEPCO’smaritime fleet. This fleet isthe main and unrenewableasset of NIOC, which has to beprotected in the best possiblemanner to be used in necessarycases. Second, we continue our
negotiations with the companieswhich are experienced in deepwaters activities. We are notdisappointed with the talksand we hope that we wouldbe able to team up with somecompanies in the future.Third, we are following up onIran’s membership of deepwaterstechnology club. Tothat end, we have set out our
objectives by publishing reliabledocuments and training ourhuman resources. We have hadcooperation in oceanology andmeteorology with the Research
Institute of Meteorology andsome universities like the QazvinInternational University, Amir-Kabir University of Technology,Sharif University of Technology
and particularly TabrizUniversity with a view to meetingour scientific needs in deepwaterexploration, developmentand production activities. Fourth,given the agreement reachedbetween the five heads of state ofCaspian Sea littoral states and amemorandum of understandingsigned between the Iranianand Azeri presidents, we arecurrently following up on oil andgas cooperation agreements withAzerbaijan. Given the CaspianSea’s unique conditions and nobackground of cooperation atthis lake, the type of agreementand its related technical and
financial transactions has itsown complexities. But we hopeto achieve acceptable results byholding meetings regularly. Ofcourse Iran enjoys advantages in
these negotiations.Iran PetroleuminterviewIran Petroleuminterview
Have KEPCO activities in the CaspianSea been disturbed due to the US
withdrawal from the Joint ComprehensivePlan of Action (JCPOA)?KEPCO activities are not tied to political andinternational agreements. Both before and afterthe JCPOA and even after the US withdrawal fromJCPOA, KEPCO has been working in line withobjectives set by National Iranian Oil Company
(NIOC). The art of management is to make maximumuse of political, security and international tools anddiplomatic opportunities created by politicians. After
implementation of the JCPOA, we tried our best tobenefit from cooperation with international companiesfor the materialization of our objectives, i.e. application
of cutting edge technology and increasing productivityin the Caspian Sea. However, it does not mean thatour activities are bound to political and internationalagreements. As you know in 2012 amid toughinternational sanctions and restrictions, Iran madeoil exploration in the Caspian Sea for the first timewithout the presence of foreign companies and by onlyrelying on its own domestic potentialities and humanresources and logistics. That happened once more in2014beforethe JCPOAwas signed.We drilled asecond exploration well
up to the depth of 3,500 meters, which proved theprevious oil discovery and ended in the explorationof the “Sardar-e-Jangal” reservoir. One of the layers of
this oil field is estimated to contain 2 billion barrelsof oil in place. In case conditions for developmentand production become ready, we would be able to
recover 500 million barrels of oil. Given the CaspianSea features, including being deep and landlocked,and no precedent of Iran’s involvement in deepwater
exploration and development, it is necessary to havehigh-tech international companies in Iran due to thehigh risk of activities. We are set to benefit from such
opportunity. However, we do not confine ourselves tothe presence of foreign companies and in parallel withnegotiations with foreign firms we are working withdomestic companies for development activities in theCaspian Sea.
Experts at Azerbaijan’s SOCARhave confirmed the reliability of
Iranian manpower for operationsin the Caspian Sea. SOCAR,in partnership with Britain’sBP, has carried out extensiveactivities in the Caspian Seaover the past two decades. BPhas invested nearly $70 billionin this sector. SOCAR experts
initially imagined that Iranianexperts would not be experiencedenough in deep-water operationsdue to international sanctions,but after several meetings they
acknowledged the reliabilityof Iranian manpower as anadvantage of Iran. The secondadvantage is Iran’s platformand vessels in the Caspian Seaas a valuable asset. Azerbaijan,Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan andeven Russia have time and again
asked for renting the platform, butdue to the priority of operationin Iran we have no plan to rent itout to neighboring countries. Ourthird advantage is the possibility
of overhaul of platforms. TheCaspian Sea is a landlocked lakeand any company willing tobuild a platform at this lake hasto construct a shipbuilding yard
like Iran’s SADRA. Building sucha plant would cost billions ofdollars. That is while in Iran weave already such a plant.The general terms,structure and model
of Iran’s upstreamcontracts for oiland gas have alsobeen approvedby the council ofministers, whichclarifies ourexpectation interms ofWhich sector arethese advantagesin