Iran, Eni sign MoUs on Oil, Gas Fields
National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and Italian Eni signed two Memoranda of understanding (MoUs) June 20 to study the third phase of Darquain oil field as well as Iran’s second major gas field, Kish.
According to the oil ministry’s official website, both MoUs are for six months. NGW reported June 19 the deal would be signed June 20.
Iran has already signed several MoUs on the above-mentioned fields with foreign companies, including Philippines Tnoc (on Darquain) and Russian Gazprom and Anglo-Dutch Shell on Kish.
According to an official document, prepared by NIOC and seen by NGW, the progress of Iran’s second major gas project, Kish field, is far behind the plan.
Iran has prioritised the development of South Pars gas field during last years. But it plans to complete Kish field by 2020 and produce 28mn m³/d of gas in the first phase.
Eni would study the ways of boosting recovery rate of the mentioned fields, alongside the details of the geology.
Darquain and Kish field plans
According to the abovementioned official document, Iran produces 150,000 b/d of oil at Darquain from two phases from 27 wells. The third phase would add 60,000 b/d to production level.
The biggest layer of the field, named Fahliyan (with 5.379bn barrels in-situ reserves) is operational, while two other layers (Ilam and Sarvak with 2.566bn barrels in-situ reserves) would be developed as the third phase of the project, which includes drilling a further 31 producing and six gas re-injection wells.
Despite its 1.55 trillion m³ of in-situ reserves and an expected 70% recovery rate, Kish has faced long delays. The government hopes it will become operational in five years.
In the year ended March 20, 2017, Iran invested $9mn in the project, or a tenth of the planned budget, while Iran's overall investment to date has reached $250mn in total as of now, which is also a tenth of the plan.
Also lagging behind the timetable is the Afrab refinery with the capacity to process 28mn m³/d of gas at a cost of $952mn; so far only $20mn has been spent.
Iran desk