Offshore staff

TEHRAN, Iran – National Iranian Offshore Oil Co. (NIOOC) is in talks with a foreign oil company about raising oil production from the Soroush field in the Persian Gulf.

NIOOC’s Mahmoud Zirakchianzade told Iranian news service the other party was prepared to invest in further development of the field, which has been producing around 90,000 b/d since 2004.

Their initial aim would be to increase the threshold by 40,000/d, which might be achieved via gas injection and other methods.

“A new exploratory well will be drilled in the Soroush oil field as soon as possible to get better information on the field’s reserves,” he said.

Shell developed the latest phases of the 15 Bbbl field and the 4 Bbbl Norouz field in 2000. They are among the largest oil fields in the western part of the Persian Gulf.

Recoverable reserves at the time were estimated at 585 MMbbl for Soroush and 560 MMbbl for Norouz. But recent studies suggest the rate of recovery could be increased substantially.

07/27/2011