By the OGJ Online Staff
LONDON, Feb. 27�The Royal/Dutch Shell Group subsidiary Shell Iran said Tuesday it had begun a 12-well drilling program to redevelop Soroosh and Nowrooz fields off Kharg Island in the Northern Persian Gulf.
Shell spudded the first of 10 horizontal production and 2 water disposal wells on Feb. 15 on the shallow water fields with the rig Maersk Viking.
Shell said work on the structures needed for the early production system on Soroosh, scheduled for completion in August, had started at the Offshore Industries Co.'s yard in Bandar Abbas. Iranian Oilfield Services Co. was awarded a contract to provide logistics services during the redevelopment project.
Robert Weener, chief executive of Shell Iran, said, "Since we signed the agreement with the National Iranian Oil Co. in November 1999, most of the major contracts have been awarded to both Iranian and foreign subcontractors. We are on track to achieve our Iranian content target of at least 30%."
Shell said heavy crude oil reserves were 500 million bbl at Soroosh and 550 million at Nowrooz. It expects to reach production of 100,000 b/d from Soroosh and 90,000 b/d from Nowrooz by 2003.