The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in Tehran on Wednesday by Deputy Managing Director of NIOC for Development and Engineering Affairs Gholamreza Manouchehri and Chairman of the Board of the Malaysian BIV Shamsul Azhar Abbas.
Accordingly, the Malaysian company will undertake development studies of Ferdowsi and Golshan fields and BIV is expected to complete its studies and hand the results to NIOC within seven months.
Manouchehri underlined that Ferdowsi and Golshan were both oil and gas fields and NIOC intends to cooperate with BIV on the gas sector and the main purpose would be to transfer gas to the shore and convert it to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
The official noted that both fields contained extra-heavy crude oil which turns the recovery process into a major challenge; “development of oil sector of the fields would require modern plans and exploitation of state-of-the-art technical knowledge not to mention necessary funds.”
Ferdowsi Gas Field is one of the NIOC recent discoveries which is located at approximately 190 kilometers southeast of Bushehr, 85 kilometers offshore the Persian Gulf. The volume of the gas in place and recoverable gas in this field is estimated at 13 and 9 TCF, respectively.
The Golshan gas field is located at approximately 180 km south east of Bushehr, 65 km offshore the Persian Gulf. The volume of gas in place (GIP) of the field is estimated at 42 to 56 TCF.
Before the imposition of EU oil embargo on Iran in 2012, Malaysia imported 50-60 thousand barrels of crude oil on a daily basis from Iran.
Earlier, NIOC sealed an MoU with Malaysia’s PETRONAS (Petroliam Nasional Berhad) on development of Cheshmeh Khosh and South Azadegan oilfields.
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