Iran wants to develop previously untapped oil fields shared with neighboring Iraq, a move that will benefit the two countries which fought a war in the 1980s, an Iranian oil official said on Saturday.
“We hope to start working together. Both countries stand to gain. We would strengthen investment and make the best use of our shared fields,” Gholamhossein Nozari, managing director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), told reporters.
“There is a general agreement between us (on the fields),” Nozari said, adding that the two countries had already held two rounds of discussion on developing the fields.
“We want to use ‘green’ fields,” he said, referring to previously untapped fields.
“We have many joint fields like Naftshahr, Paidar-e Gharb, Azar, Azadegan and so many others,” he said.
Iraq has already invited Iranian firms to bid for contracts to build at least four oil refineries in the country, Iraq’s Oil Ministry said this month. Iraq needs to attract investment from foreign firms to develop fields and boost output, Reuters reported.
Iran has finalized technical issues with China’s Sinopec on developing its Yadavaran oil field but legal and economic details are still being negotiated, Nozari said.
He also told reporters energy major Shell was still in talks about the possibility of taking a stake in Yadavaran.
Sinopec group, state-owned parent of Sinopec Corp, agreed in October 2004 to take the lead in developing Yadavaran and to buy 10 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year for 25 years.
Shell has said it helped prepare a development plan for Yadavaran and had an option to participate in the project.
“The technical study has been finalized (for Yadavaran). We have some legal and economic issues that are pending. I have invited the COO (chief operating officer) of Sinopec to come and finalize these issues,” Nozari said. He did not give a date. Asked about Shell’s interest in taking a stake, Nozari added, “They are discussing this together with us.”
The Yadavaran field is expected to produce 300,000 barrels per day of crude.
“We had $17 billion in contracts last year and that shows we are attracting investors,” said Nozari, speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Tehran.
He added that other deals worth $36 billion were being discussed with foreign firms but did not list them all.
Alongside the talks on Yadavaran, he cited negotiations with China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) to develop Iran’s North Pars gas field as one of the deals under discussion.
Nozari said the country welcomed technical, financial, and political cooperation with the energy customers, Petroenergy Information Network (PIN) said.
He added cooperation would beef up security in the world’s energy market.
He made the remarks at the RAVAND 2nd Annual Conference that started here Saturday to discuss Iran’s role in economic cooperation and security.
The NIOC chief pointed to Iran’s rich oil and gas reserves and added the country would welcome international companies’ participation in domestic projects.
“According to the prediction, the world’s demand for energy will increase by 1.6 percent by 2030 and will hit 17 billion barrels of crude oil,” he added.
The official said NIOC is third in the world rankings in terms of hydrocarbon reserves, output, refining capacity, and sales.
The two-day RAVANAD Annual Conference’s topics include “opportunities and threats between Iran and United Nations Security Council”, “Iran’s role in regional security and cooperation”, “trend of world oil market and geopolitical change”, energy as foreign policy’s tool”, “oil projects in the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea regions”, “regional states’ participation in joint ventures”, “cooperation among gas producing countries”, “feasibility of establishment of OPEC-style gas body and its impact on energy security”, “challenges facing financial sector and direct attraction of foreign capitals and Iran’s experience”, “industrial growth in Iran and need in foreign markets”, “tariff and tax policies”, “private sector’s cooperation”, “emergence of environmental challenges”, and “trade opportunities”.
