TEHRAN – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Sunday that Iranhas held its end of the bargain by taking the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline tothe Pakistani border, but Pakistan has not yet taken any action in thisregard.
“If Pakistan doesn’t take necessary actions in this regard Iran has nochoice but to take legal actions,” he added.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said although Iran is able toincrease its crude oil output by 100,000 barrels per day in less than fewdays but complying with OPEC, non-OPEC pact the country will keep theoutput at the agreed levels.
According to the minister, the increase in production levels would comefrom the West Karoun oilfields which Iran shares with Iraq.
“Oil production from the West Karoun fields has currently reached 305,000barrels per day, 145,000 barrels more than last year’s 160,000 barrels,”Zanganeh said.
The official further noted that the country’s average daily oil productionin the first ten months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21,2017- January 20, 2018) increased by 160,000 barrels compared to the figurefor the last year’s same time span.
“The average exports in the same period also increased by 60,000 barrels onyear,”
*Developing shared fields is ministry’s priority*
Elsewhere in his remarks, the minister stressed the development of sharedfields as the ministry’s priority saying, “These fields will either bedeveloped by domestic companies or will be assigned to strong foreigncontractors.”
Asked about the potential foreign contractors for developing the fields,the minister didn’t mention any names due to security issues stating thatnegotiations are ongoing with domestic and foreign companies fordevelopment of the fields.
“Since there are always parties who try to intervene with contract signingprocesses, we prefer not to announce the names of companies with which thenegotiations are close to conclusion,” the minister explained.
He stated that National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) is currently negotiatingwith over 20 foreign and domestic companies to sign contracts for thedevelopment of the country’s oil and gas fields.
West Karoun region includes five oilfields (Yadavaran, North Azadegan,South Azadegan, North Yaran, and South Yaran) Iran shares with Iraq in thewestern part of Iran’s southwestern region of Karoun.TT