“Parallel talks have started with other multinationals to undertake the megaproject,” said Karim Zobeidi, the head of a special department at NIOC that oversees the performance of reservoirs, ISNA reported.

Pointing to the $7.45 billion deal between the French energy major Total and the Copenhagen-based giant that was concluded last month, Zobeidi said, “Because Total has purchased Maersk’s oil and gas business, we should follow the talks more prudently.”

According to the official, the French giant is carrying out operations on Qatar’s oil layer in the joint oilfield with Iran in the Persian Gulf that is why NIOC ought to conduct negotiations with tact so as to not lose ground to the Arab state.

A POGC official has reported on the signing of a contract with a French firm for conducting pressure drop studies in South Pars joint gas field.

Maersk has already drilled more than 300 wells and extracted more than 1 billion barrels of oil for Qatar from the Qatari section of South Pars, which is known as the North Dome. According to reports, French energy major Total S.A. took over drilling and production operations in the North Dome from Maersk last year.

Highlighting the importance of collaboration with foreign firms to develop the second and third development phases of the field’s oil layer, the official noted that the layer’s complicated geological structure necessitates qualified companies to implement enhanced oil recovery techniques from the beginning of their operation.

“Pars Oil and Gas Company, as the contractor of South Pars oil layer, has held talks with a number of international companies, yet no agreement has been signed,” Zobeidi said, adding that Schlumberger Ltd, the world’s leading oilfield services provider, was also reportedly interested in drilling the South Pars oil layer, but it failed to reach agreement with NIOC.

According to Roham Qasemi, managing director of Petroiran Development Company, cumulative crude oil output from the field’s oil layer has surpassed 2.5 million barrels over roughly six months.

Iran began to extract crude oil from South Pars in March using FPSO Cyrus, a floating production storage and offloading vessel in March. The FPSO was reportedly built in Singapore and cost $300 million.

“Maersk’s operational capacity and know-how to drill horizontal oil wells as deep as 10,000 meters are key to its success in developing the South Pars oil layer, as we are still deprived of such expertise,” Qasemi said.

Underscoring the country’s domestic capacity to develop the project’s first phase, he added that Iranian experts drilled 39,000 meters of offshore well in addition to installing a 2,500-ton platform.

Asked about employing another FPSO in the second phase, Qasemi noted that Petroiran, POGC and the Danish conglomerate are holding technical talks about the issue.

Iran aims to stabilize production from the SP layer at 25,000 barrels per day and gradually boost output to 55,000-60,000 bpd.

NIOC plans to employ enhanced oil recovery methods to boost the extraction rate in fields by 35%. South Pars oil layer is located 130 kilometers off Iran’s coast in the Persian Gulf with an estimated 7 billion barrels of oil in place, but it is hard to put an accurate estimate on the volume unless more exploratory wells are drilled.

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The meeting was also attended by representatives from National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC), and National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), as well as Iranian petroleum Ministry and Iran’s Research Institute of Petroleum Industry.

The Austrian representatives said they are eager to cooperate with Iran in renewable energy sector and offer training services in this field. OMV representative also announced his company’s readiness for development of Band-e-Karkheh oil field in Iran’s southwestern province of Khuzestan.

In the meeting aimed at investigating the two countries’ energy cooperation roadmap, the sides discussed cooperation in energy saving, exploration and development, research and training projects, as well as environmental issues and gas exports to Europe in addition to making investment in oil and gas projects.

Jochen Penker, the director of European and international energy policy at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, is heading the Austrian delegation in its three-day visit to Iran.

Austrian Ambassador to Tehran Friedrich Stift, who was also present in the joint energy committee meeting, said his country supports expansion of Tehran-Vienna.

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Following the signing of an Agreement in Principle (AiP) with France’s Total S.A. company on development of South Pars Phase 11, the French firm will seal two more agreements today with NIOC.

One contract to be inked between the two sides today on Wednesday December 07 pertains conducting studies and development of Azadegan joint oilfields.

The accord follows an earlier meeting in December between Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh and Chairman and CEO of Total Patrick Pouyanné held on the the sidelines of OPEC summit in Algeria where the two sides mulled over venues to develop South Azadegan oil field.

NIOC and France’s Total had also sealed a confidential disclosure agreement in March in order to develop Iran’s South Azadegan joint oilfield with Iraq and the French side was required to present its technical bid in six months’ time.

Earlier, the Project Director of the Development Project of South Azadegan Seyyed Mahmoud Mar’ashi estimated that the required volume of investment for the project will be less than five billion dollars in order to reach a daily production of 300 to 320 thousand barrels of crude oil.

In the current time, about 50 thousand barrels of crude oil is being extracted from the joint oil field while completion of the first developmental phase will raise the output to 100 thousand barrels per day by the end of the current year.

In addition to the deal on Azadegan, another agreement is slated to be signed with Total over expansion of Kish gas field as one of the NIOC Recent Discoveries which was discovered in 2006.

A total of 12 wells have so far been drilled in Kish gas field, which is a giant independent field close to Kish Island in the Persian Gulf, and three developmental phases have been defined to realize five billion cubic feet of gas.

The third contract, however, will be endorsed today between NIOC and Royal Dutch Shell on development of Yadavaran joint oilfield. It remains noteworthy that the first phase of development in the Iranian field has been carried out by Sinopec of China.

With completion of Phase 1 of North Azadegan oilfield, in collaboration with China National Petroleum Corporation International (CNPCI), the production at Yadavaran joint field has also surged to 115 thousand barrels per day as a result of cooperation with Sinopec.

Oil production at the joint oilfield with Iran has currently reached 115 thousand barrels which exceeds the initial commitment made for the first developmental phase by approximately 30 thousand barrels.

Yadavaran oilfield has a reservoir of 17 billion barrels and a potential to produce 300-400 thousand bpd of crude.

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh had previously said the MDP of phase II of North Azadegan and Yadavaran oilfields has been approved by Chinese contractor SINOPEC and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) under an initial contract, adding “Iran is ready to hold multilateral negotiations with Chinese companies within its accepted framework.”

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“I am aware, they have drafts of a new oil contract, which is a mixture of production, sharing and buyback,” he said. “It is extremely important for us to be able to manage some own part of oil, so that we could include this oil in our assets.”

He noted, “We are not going to be involved in services only, we have been discussing it with them, and as yet this is what they should decide among themselves.”

Iran, he added, had confirmed its interest in having the company work in Iran.

“Vagit (Alekperov Lukoil’s president) has met Iran’s oil minister and they confirmed the interest our company participates, as we have a very good reputation as we put operational Qurna in that region,” he continued.

“I hope very much, if Iran among themselves offers acceptable terms of the oil contract, we shall be pleased to work in that republic.”

Earlier, Alekperov said Lukoil may sign contracts with Iran on two fields Al-Mansuri and Ab-Teymur in October-November 2017. He said that recoverable reserves of each of these fields exceed one million tons.

Iran has already signed three memoranda of understanding with Russian oil companies Lukoil, Tatneft and Zarubezhneft.

Earlier, a representative of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Gholamreza Manouchehri said that the Russian companies are potential investors in oil and gas projects in Iran.

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After the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in January, the European countries resumed oil imports from Iran or began negotiations for imports of oil from the major oil producer.

Qamsari said that Iran’s oil exports in October stood at 2.44 million barrels per day.

Asian countries continue to be the main destination for Iranian oil, according to Qamsari.

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