November 15-2013
Chinese energy companies aren’t moving fast enough to develop the Yadavaran and Azadegan oil fields in southern Iran, an Iranian oil executive said Sunday.
It was only the latest in a long series of complaints about foreign oil firms dragging their feet on projects. In most cases, Iran has canceled the contracts and turned the work over to Iranian firms.
Abdol-Reza Hossain-nejad, managing director of Iran’s Petroleum Engineering and Development Co., said the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known also as Sinopec, wasn’t working fast enough to meet the development criteria for Yadavaran.
“We had planned to raise output from the Yadavaran oilfield to 85,000 barrels per day over a 59-month period. But Chinese companies were only willing to reach that goal in a 74-month period,” he told the Oil Ministry’s official website Shana.
China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) is contracted to help develop the Azadegan complex, one of Iran’s largest oil fields. It straddles the border with Iraq.
Hossain-nejad said CNPC is behind schedule there, but provided few details. He said drilling rigs need to be procured for the field and that CNPC was taking Iran’s concerns “seriously.”
One year ago, CNPC said it was withdrawing from Phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars project because it couldn’t find any buyers for the gas, but it said it wanted stay in Azadegan.
“CNPC can’t find buyers for gas production from South Pars, so that’s why we can’t start production there,” a CNPC source said.
Iran and CNPC signed a $4.7 billion contract to develop Phase 11 of South Pars in 2009. Previously, the French Total Company held the contract, but it withdrew as Iran’s relations with Europe got testier.
The Iranian Oil Ministry warned CNPC several times because of repeated delays in the company’s start of work on Phase 11.
Despite CNPC’s withdrawal from South Pars, the Chinese firm remains keen on the North Azadegan project and South Azadegan project, which are oilfield, not gasfield, projects.
CNPC said it would complete detailed design work by the end of 2012 for the North Azadegan project and planned to complete 10 percent of the total construction and 25 percent of the project schedule by then.
