AOGPC to Operate West Karoun FieldsDarquain Output Set to Rise
rvandan Oil and Gas Production Company (AOGPC) is a nascent subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). The reservoirs run by AOGPC are technically complicated and vast. AOGPC is tasked with operating the jointly owned Azadegan, Yadavaran, Yaran, Sohrab, Arvand and Khorramshahr oil fields, as well as the independent Darquain, Jofair, Sepehr, Band Karkheh, Susangerd, Omid and Moshtaq fields. Jahangir Pourhang, CEO of AOGPC, has said the targets set for the first ten months of the current calendar year had been met. Further talks are under way for development of the AOGPC-run fields. AOGPC was established with a view to reaching 1mb/d output by 2025. It was also assigned the mission to steer production activities and protect oil and gas facilities, feed refineries and power plants and export products to international markets. More than 50% of oil fields administered by AOGPC are shared with neighboring countries. Furthermore, they are spread on vast swaths of land, miscible gas injection has been applied to Darquain, and operations are under way near Hoor al-Azim Lagoon which requires environmental considerations. That underlines the significance of missions assigned to AOGPC. Pourhang is assured that AOGPC would touch the 1mb/d target. He says: “The West Karoun pumping station is able to carry 750,000 b/d of oil. Moreover, since the company is nascent we have already started equipping it in order to be able to lead operations in one of the fields.” Development of the oil fields located in West Karoun is upon the Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), but these fields will be transferred to AOGPC after they become operational. Pourhang said various development agreements had been signed over the past five years for the development of West Karoun fields. “In some of these agreements, the investor and the developer are required to manage production during the early years of startup before transfer to us,” he added. Pourhang said AOGPC was ready to steer developed fields, adding that it has already completed or worked-over 14 wells.Darquain Oil Output UpThe Darquain oil field is located 45 kilometers north of Khorramshahr and 85 kilometers south of Ahvaz in Khuzestan Province. Pourhang said: “The current output from this field stands at about 120,000 b/d with gas injection at 220 mcf/d. So far, about one-third of its recoverable oil has been extracted.” He noted that due to specific reservoir conditions, high pressure and high H2S content; drilling in this field is difficult. He said that miscible gas injection is a difficult task, adding: “Well No. 34 of Darquain is the first well that became operational after Italy’s Eni left. This well would in the near future add 5,000 b/d to the field output.” Pourhang said: “The completion string and foreign-made commodities purchased for the well were not sufficient. Through domestic manufacturing, we supplied the needs and National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) engineers installed the equipment and tested it successfully.”The Darquain oil is light with an API gravity of 38 degrees. The oil produced at this field is partly piped to the West Karoun pumping station to be finally exported.Minoo Island Oil FindIran’s Petroleum Minister, Bijan Zangeneh, announced in late January that oil had been found in Minoo Island in Abadan Province. He said that an exploration well reached oil at a depth of 3,770 meters, noting that the oil was known to be very light and sweet with an API of 40. Referring to this new oil discovery, Pourhang said: “We cannot provide exact figures about the reserves.”He added that AOGPC Technical Directorate had worked out all scenarios about production from this newly discovered reservoir and made need analysis about necessary equipment. “AOGPC has a clear plan. If more essential studies need to be done, a second exploration well will be drilled. If we have to start production we will do it,” said Pourhang.Talks Continue with Iran FirmsPourhang said AOGPC was in talks with Iranian companies for the development of some of its oil fields. “So far three Iranian companies have submitted their master development plan for Susangerd, which has been transferred to the "Reservoirs Supreme Council" for examination,” he said.He added that AOGPC was in talks with Germany’s Wintershall for the development of Sohrab field, which were suspended due to the US unlawful and unilateral sanctions.Higher Processing Capacity Chief among the activities carried out by AOGPC over recent years, are the construction and startup of a production and desalting unit in West Karoun, which has facilitated the processing of oil supplied from the joint fields in that area. Shahram Ardian, chief coordinator at AOGPC, said more than 80 million barrels of oil had so far been processed. The processing unit includes six desalters (two desalters at each row). The strong points of this unit are its regulation based on the flow of input oil and processing of oil at different pressures and with any amount of water and salt.Currently, 110,000 b/d of oil is being processed at this unit, which is then delivered as feedstock to the Abadan oil refinery or sent to export terminals. “We have informed PEDEC of our readiness to receive more oil for processing,” said Ardian. Yavar Ahmadi, director of the Azadegan and Jofair area, also touched on the production and desalting unit in West Karoun, saying: “This unit came on-stream in 2017 with a processing capacity of 165,000 b/d of crude oil. Its first phase had been launched in November 2015 and the second phase in 2016. The third phase was finally operational in 2017. This processing capacity can be effective in the processing of oil produced in West Karoun.” He said that the production and desalting unit had been fully built and made operational by Iranian contractors and technicians under AOGPC leadership. Farhad Sadeqzadeh, director of production engineering at AOGPC, said more than 100,000 b/d of oil was being processed at the unit. “The unit was built for processing oil supplied by West Karoun’s joint fields, and now the oil produced at South Azadegan, Yaran and Jofair is being delivered to this unit,” he added. Sadeqzadeh said that Sepehr, Jofair, Sohrab and Susangerd would also send their oil to this desalting plant for processing. Agreements within the framework of the newly developed Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) have been signed for the development of the Sepehr and Jofair oil fields.