The National Iranian Oil Company(NIOC) announced that probably initiates negotiations with global energy giant Shell, over the development of Kish gas field which holds the country’s largest reservoirs of natural gas after South Pars.
Noureddin Shahnazizadeh, the managing director of the Petroleum Development and Engineering Company (PEDEC) said that a planned tender over Kish might be scrapped because no other company had approached Iran over the project. Shahnazizadeh stated that Shell was already studying the field based on an agreement that it signed with NIOC in December. He added that the NIOC could accordingly enter into development talks with Shell, which is to complete its studies over Kish by July.
Kish gas field is located on Iran’s Kish Island in the Persian Gulf. With a reservoir of 70 trillion cubic feet, the field is expected to produce about four million barrels of condensate as well as nine billion cubic meters of natural gas once fully developed.
The basic agreement that was signed with Shell involved studying, not only Kish field, but also two other major Iranian oil projects – South Azadegan and Yadavaran.
South Azadegan and Yadavaran are located in Iran’s southwestern oil-rich province of Khouzestan and already have an early production of 40,000 bpd and 85,000 bpd, respectively. Both are expected to boost Iran’s oil production capacity by above 600,000 bpd significantly once fully developed within the next three years.
Hans Nijkamp, the head of the department for Iran affairs at Royal Dutch Shell, told reporters, after signing the agreement, that it marked a new chapter in relations between Shell and Iran.
Nijkamp further said that Shell was determined to enter into a long-term cooperation with Iran, stressing that this could have significant positive impacts for both sides.
Source & Image credit: NIOC
