Ali Kardor described the deal between National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and China National Petroleum Corporation International (CNPCI) saying “a delegation comprising directors of the Chinese company have recently visited Iran holding talks with NIOC officials.”
He noted that CNPCI has agreed to carry out technical corrections for development of the northern wing of Masjed Soleiman, a project which will soon be launched.
In response to the question if a new deal has been signed with CNPCI, Kardor asserted “the agreement was reached within the framework of earlier contracts though an MoU has been sealed for conducting new technical operations.”
“The first phase of cooperation with CNPCI pertains to the reform process for development of the Iranian field,” underlined the official adding “for the time being, NIOC is not after implementing a plan to increase oil recovery factor in Masjed Soleiman in collaboration with the Chinese side.”
Deputy Head of NIOC Gholamreza Manouchehri had previously reported on the visit to Beijing of an Iranian delegation to negotiate a deal to improve rate of recovery in Masjed Soleiman oil field; “CNPCI will resume accordingly its activity in the oil field for the second time after an unsuccessful interaction with NIOC when the latter had opposed the deal unilaterally.”
Meanwhile, Ebrahim Piramoun, head of NIOC’s local office in Masjed Soleiman had earlier stated that in-place oil reserves in the Iranian oilfield is 6.5bn barrels, and since the time of Knox D’Arcy in 1907, only 18 per cent of the reserve had been extracted; “more than 80 percent of extractable oil has been depleted and only improving rate of recovery through IOR and EOR would make possible production of oil from the field.
“Previously, the Chinese company had developed the field’s northern edge under a buyback contract which led to increased production, but production stopped later in view of problems caused in facilities of the project,” he recalled.
As the first and oldest oilfield in the Middle East, Masjed Soleiman was discovered by an English company in 1908.