Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company Ali Kardor said on Monday that NIOC has been able to achieve the target of four million bpd output in the wake of lifting the sanctions.

He made the remarks in his speech to a group of the Petroleum Ministry officials.

Kardor said that Iran has been able to maintain its 14 percent quota in OPEC.

Let’s not forget that the rivals go on pumping oil and gas quickly, so Iran should not lag behind in producing oil and gas, Kardor said.

He said that Iran has also been able to raise its oil selling capacity to four million barrels.

‘Our oil production capacity should reach 5.2 or 5.7 million bpd.’

Kardor said Iran has over the past 11 years, embarked on horizontal drilling in South Pars layer for three times and only 700 meters were drilled due to lack of necessary technology. ‘Qatar, however, drilled 12 kms in joint oil layer horizontally and exploited 340,000 bpd oil.’

‘We should update our technology and regain our rights in the joint fields; Any claim that incentives will be given to the foreign executives is wrong. We do not accept it at all because as far as oil contracts are concerned, we will notify the foreign contractors of all our terms and conditions. Now, we should do something to make other countries dependent on us because a country like Saudi Arabia has a close watch on Iranian oil talks and contracts with other countries. Also, Saudi officials give highest amount of discount to foreign customers in a bid to create problems to Iranian oil industry. We should take back our part in the oil industry and support our oil and gas development with all might because we are progressive in economy. We have been able to improve the country’s economic growth with that amount of oil exports. The new model of oil contracts gives less than 8.2 percent share to foreigners and the remaining 92 percent of the privileges belongs to Iran government.’

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An official has said more than 76 million barrels of gas condensate have been exported from South Pars phases in the current Iranian year (began March 20).

Masoud Hassani, Managing Director of South Pars Gas Complex, referred to the latest status of gas condensate production and exports at South Pars phases explaining “in the first six month of the current year, more than 76 million barrels of gas condensate have been deployed to world markets.”

The official noted that the volume of exports in the current year has experienced a 25% growth as compared with the similar period in the earlier year asserting “moreover, a total of 1.35 million tons of LPG were shipped to various states in the mentioned time span.”

“Exports volume of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) has risen by about six percent in the first half of the current year as compared with the similar period a year ago,” maintained Hassani stating that approximately 62 percent of the country’s gas demand is being supplied by South Pars phases.

Meanwhile, Executive Director for International Affairs at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Seyed Mohsen Ghamsari recently stressed that Iran’s stored gas condensate will be sold and exported in coming months.”

The official underscored that the daily volume for gas condensate exports is now 600 thousand barrels while the output stands at 530 thousand barrels per day indicating that the stored amount will be sold gradually.

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Deputy oil minister said Total S.A. Company has put forward a proposal to cooperate in development of Phase 11 of South Pars gas field.

Ali Kardor made the remarks underlining that two more foreign firms have also voiced readiness to launch partnership in the gas project.

Managing director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) emphasized that Iran’s new oil and gas projects will be put out to international tenders asserting “despite receiving proposals from Total of France and two other companies, no contract has become finalized or inked for developing Phase 11 of South Pars joint gas field.”

Apparently, Eni of Italy and South Korea’s Hyundai are the two firms who, in addition to total S.A., have expressed willingness to cooperate over the only South Pars phase which has remained undeveloped.

On the other hand, the Foreign Minister of France Laurent Fabius, in his earlier visit to Tehran, appreciated the activities of Total in Iran’s oil industry saying “the French company has been active in Iranian oil projects for the past 20 years while new windows are expected to be opened for Total’s presence in developmental projects of Iranian oil fields.” Iran’s Oil Minister had also made similar remarks on the sidelines of his meeting with the French FM.

Meanwhile, Managing Director of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Ali Akbar Shabanpour had stated earlier that talks were underway to hand over the drilling project of Phase 11 to two Iranian companies; “Phase 11 is as large as two ordinary phases and the drilling sections will be undertaken by Iranian firms,” he had underlined.

The development project of Phase 11 aims to transfer the produced gas to Phases 6, 8 and 12 in order to exploit their vacant refining capacity as well as to enhance access to required materials in the phase./MNA

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Iran has exported about 8 million barrels of crude oil from North Azadegan oilfield since the beginning of current Iranian calendar year (March 20), Shana quoted Keramat Behbahani, the operator of project for developing the oilfield, as saying on Tuesday.

North Azadegan is one of the five oilfields, dubbed the West Karoun oilfields, Iran shares with Iraq at the western part of Iran’s southwestern region of Karoun.

The project of developing North Azadegan oilfield is divided into two phases, each aimed at producing 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and 39 million cubic feet per day of gas.

According to Behbahani, since the first phase is almost completed, the payments to the Chinese contractor of this phase are being arranged.

Based on the initial agreement, China National Petroleum Corporation International (CNPCI) should present its proposal for the second phase, and in case of being approved by National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), the second phase of the development project will be executed.

“For the second phase, producing 25,000 barrels per day is on the agenda,” Behbahani said adding that the preliminary studies of the second phase carried out by Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDC) show that the oil in place amount of the field will be about 6.3 billion barrels in the second phase.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the official noted that in the project of developing North Azadegan oilfield, 67 percent of the contracts are allocated to domestic companies especially National Iranian Drilling Company.

Earlier in July Behbahani told the Tehran Times that foreign investment in development of North Azadegan oilfield is conditioned on preserving the national interests of Iran.

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An oil official has announced that Vitol S.A. of Switzerland is likely to purchase Russian crude to be swapped through Iran’s largest oil terminal in the Caspian Sea.

Despite the seven-year hiatus in oil swaps among Caspian Sea littoral states through Iran’s route, the process has not been resumed yet though negotiations are still underway with countries like Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan Republic.

Meanwhile on Thursday, a Swiss delegation comprising representatives of Vitol S.A. visited facilities and infrastructures of Neka Oil Terminal as Iran’s largest crude terminal in the Caspian Sea.

The visit aimed to resume oil swaps especially in view of the fact that the Swiss firm held cooperation with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) before the halt in crude swaps.

BP (British Petroleum) is yet another company looking forward to resumption of oil swaps between Caspian Sea stated and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Hamidreza Shahdoust, a local Iranian Oil Terminals Company (IOTC) official in the city of northern city of Neka, confirmed the visit of Vitol delegation to Neka Oil Terminal adding “experts at the oil trader giant Vitol made a visit to the Iranian terminal aiming to resume oil swaps.”

The official estimated that oil swaps will be resumed from Neka terminal within the next 7 to 14 days as all facilities at the Iranian terminal are prepared for the mission.

“Neka Oil Terminal enjoys a total storage capacity of 120 thousand barrels per day in its 12 tanks,” underlined Shahdoust maintaining “moreover, the project to increase oil swap capacity to 2.5 million barrels per day has kicked off.”

Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, while pointing to Iran’s readiness for oil swap with Russia, had earlier noted “the Russian side has also voiced willingness for swapping a portion of its oil production through Iran’s route and relevant negotiations are underway.”

“The capacity exists for a maximum swap of 150 thousand oil barrels per day,” underlined Zanganeh stressing “the process would boost Iran’s market share since the replacement is delivered to customers in the Persian Gulf.”

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