Directing Manager of Iran's Central Oil Fields Company (ICOFC) Salbali Karimi said a daily average of 100 thousand barrels of crude oil are currently produced in central oilfields of Iran; “daily crude production in the region is scheduled to climb in two stages before reaching a total of 190 to 200 thousand barrels,” he added.
Karimi acknowledged that Iran’s goal has been to increase oil production to 350 thousand barrels per day asserting “in order to achieve the target of increased production during the post sanction era, implementation of development projects like increasing recovery factor via EOR and IOR have also been put on the agenda.”
Recalling that recoverable crude oil reserves in Iran’s central regions add up to a total of 10 billion barrels, the official said “moreover, a sum of 7 trillion cubic meters of recoverable natural gas reserves are deemed to be found in the area.”
He pointed to signs of increasing natural gas reserves in central oilfields of Iran given the discovery of new hydrocarbon fields and formations adding “due to the need for management of financial resources and costs, the number of active drilling rigs will decrease from 22 to 12 in the current year.”
Managing director of ICOFC deemed investment in central and western oil and gas fields as the country’s number-one priority of investment; “according to estimates, about 10 billion euros of investment potentials are available for oil and gas projects in Iran’s central fields,” he added.
In response to a question on decline of investment in Iran’s oil industry coinciding with dropping oil prices, Karimi underlined “as a rule, when oil prices fall, the costs of services and investment need to go down in turn.”
“The issue of justification is not at stake in the field of energy since it is considered as a necessity,” noted the official stressing “energy cannot be excluded from everyday life and the level of unavoidability goes back to the systems and structures.”
“Low prices have brought about the best opportunity for investment in Iran’s oil and gas industry,” he emphasized.
At the end of his remarks, the official stressed the lower costs of crude and natural gas production in Iran in comparison with most Middle Eastern or even OPEC countries; “National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) is not in favor of lower oil prices, but the fall in prices would lead to attraction of foreign investors to the country because of really low costs of production in Iran.”
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