Plan to Enhance Offshore Fields Output
National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) is planning to implement 33 oil and gas projects to enhance recovery from oil fields across the country, including four offshore projects in the Siri, Forouzan, Resalat and Reshadat fields.Hamid Bovard, CEO of the Iran Offshore Oil Company (IOOC), has said three packages of projects for oil recovery preservation and enhancement have been decided. He said the four offshore development projects, worth $800 million, would be finalized this year.The entire 33 projects are expected to be implemented over a three-year period for more than $6 billion. The major provinces involved in these projects are Khuzestan, Bushehr, Fars, Hormuzgan, Kermanshah, Ilam and Kohguiluyeh Boyer Ahmad – all located in south, southwest and west of Iran.Once operational, these projects would contribute about 300,000 b/d to Iran’s national output.Last February, nine contracts were signed between NIOC affiliates and Iranian contractors. In October last year, IOOC and Petroiran Development Company (PEDCO) reached agreement on enhanced recovery from the Sivand and Siri oil fields. Under the deal, over a 20-year period, oil production from these fields would grow by about 16,000 b/d. Bovard said: “PEDCO will have six months to supply equipment and make required arrangements. The deadline has not expired yet, but the project has had desirable progress. The projects are predicted to become operational in the second half of the current calendar year.”He said negotiations were under way for the development of the Reshadat oil field, adding: “A licensing round has also been held for the Resalat field, whose successful bidder will be named soon.”Output Stability Bovard said despite economic bottlenecks and international pressure exerted on the petroleum industry, IOOC met its production targets in the last calendar year to March. “In addition to stable production, we did a good job in water and gas injection,” he added. “There have been some faults and we are not happy with the results of all projects, but we have fared well with regard to money stock and in light of circumstances,” he said. Bovard also referred to legally-rooted delays in the completion of the Kharg NGL project, saying: “Given the activities of contractors and equipment of yards, the current calendar year will be a busy year.”The Kharg NGL project is being implemented for the first time under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model by the private sector. The investor in this project is Iran’s offshore industrial company SAFF.He said after the operation of the NGL project, the gas flare of the Abuzar oil platform would be turned off once the project has been implemented and the associated gas would be used at the Kharg petrochemical and oil facilities. Furthermore, the gas flares of the Hendijan, Bahregansar, Resalat, Balal, Soroush and Norouz would be turned off, too.The objective sought in the implementation of Kharg NGL project has been to avoid the flaring of 300 mcf/d of associated gas. The startup of the NGL plant would supply such products as ethane, propane, pentane, butane and natural gas. That would lead to the creation of a value chain of downstream projects in Kharg Island.Studies Updated Bovard touched on an NIOC plan to update reservoirs data, saying: “Within the framework of this plan, the reservoir data of the Doroud, Abuzar, Bahregansar, Hendijan, Forouzan, Hengam and Norouz would be updated by contractors.” He said Petroleum Minister Bijan Zangeneh had instructed the renovation of oil facilities, adding: “In this regard, CEO of NIOC has given a one-month deadline for the submission of reports on renovations. We hope that by managing costs and executing approaches we would witness the renovation of high-risk facilities of the company.”Recoverable Reserves Extracted 82.8%IOOC administers 30 oil fields and 12 gas fields. Among them 18 oil fields and 2 gas fields have so far been developed. Zarir Goudarzi, IOOC technical director, said 82.8% of recoverable oil reserves in Iran’s offshore jointly owned oil fields has been already extracted at a recovery rate of 23.7%. “This amount of recovery shows maximum efficient recovery from joint offshore fields in different periods,” he said. Goudarzi said 14% of recoverable reserves in IOOC-owned gas fields had been also extracted.He added that 721 oil and gas wells had been drilled in IOOC-run oil and gas fields. About half of wells are operational and more than 25% of IOOC oil production has been materialized through using downhole pumps. He said IOCC had moved towards using Iranian drilling rigs and vessels in order to reduce drilling costs. Goudarzi said IOOC had cut the level of its drilling services by two-thirds over a five-year period to 2018.