Two state-owned oil companies in Iran have signed separate memoranda of understanding with international counterparts covering field development in the Islamic Republic.
National Iranian Oil Co. signed an MOU with a consortium including Toyo Engineering Corp., Chiba, Japan, covering revamp of facilities and the upgrade of production of natural gas at offshore Salman oil and gas field. The group also includes Iran’s Petropars.
The partners will finance studies of the rehabilitation project. If they decide to proceed, the deal with be an engineering, procurement, construction, and finance contract financed by Toyo.
Salman field, once known as Sassan, straddles Iran’s maritime boundary with Abu Dhabi. According to a recent estimate, Iran produces 40,000 b/d from Salman, and Abu Dhabi produces 70,000 b/d from separately developed Abu Al Bukhoosh field.
Under the other MOU, National Iranian South Oilfields Co. and Zarubezhneft, Moscow, will assess development of Shadegan and Rag-e Sefid oil fields in southern Iran. Both are giant oil fields discovered in the 1960s.
The Russian company will study the fields and submit a development proposal within 9 months.
Last November, NISOC signed an MOU with Schlumberger for formation studies at those fields and nearby Parsi field.
