NIDC keeps drilling as Iran seeks developer for Ab Teymour

Iran has continued to lead from the front as the world’s most prolific driller, with the National Iranian Drilling Co. (NIDC) reporting that it had drilled and completed 117 oil and gas wells in the 10 months to January 19.

The company’s managing director Abdollah Mousavi said that drilling during the current Iranian calendar year, which runs from March 20, 2020 to March 20, 2021, NIDC drilled 27 development wells, one appraisal well, 85 workover wells and four exploratory wells.

He added that 18 of the wells had been drilled 326 days earlier than schedule, with 30 wells drilled between December 19 and January 19.

In a January update, Mousavi said that NIDC was conducting drilling activities across 10 Iranian provinces.

The latest news suggests that Iran is on course to have increased its already impressive drilling levels, with NIDC having drilled over 240 oil and gas wells across the country over the past two years combined. The company accounts for a significant part of Iran’s overall drilling capabilities, with 70 onshore and offshore drilling rigs.

In October, the company announced it had agreed deals for the rental of 16 drilling rigs to five domestic companies.

Parent firm National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) signed agreements with Global Petrotech Kish Co., Petro Iran Development Co., Pasargad Energy Development Co., Qeshm Oil and Energy Industries, and Petrotenco Co., all of which were recently awarded contracts to carry out work on oil and gas fields in the country.

Reza Dehqan, NIOC’s deputy director for development and engineering affairs, said that the rigs would be used to drill wells at the Zilaei, Mansourabad, Siahmakan, Ahvaz (phases one and four) and Maroun (phases five and 12).

Ab Teymour up for grabs

Through its official Shana media network, Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum (MoP) last week sought to stir investor interest in the super-giant Ab Teymour oilfield, located in the southern Khuzestan Province.

Home to an estimated 15.2bn barrels of oil in place (OIP), Ab Teymour currently produces around 60,000 barrels per day (bpd), though by Shana’s own admission, the field’s recovery rate has suffered because of a lack of investment and is currently around just 2.3%.

The field is currently run by NIOC subsidiary National Iranian South Oil Co. (NISOC), with operations overseen by another subsidiary, Karoun Oil and Gas Production Co. (KOGPC), which anticipates raising production to 95,000 bpd.

In 2018, Ab Teymour was included in a broad framework agreement between Moscow and Tehran for Russian firms to develop at least eight major oil and gas fields, with Lukoil holding the remit before the deal fell apart.

Prior to this, the MoP had provided data for the field to several IOCs, with proposed field development plans (FDPs) submitted by Indonesia’s Pertamina, Denmark’s Maersk Oil (now owned by France’s Total) and Lukoil.

Lukoil’s FDP envisaged production from Ab Teymour reaching 150,000 bpd, and Pertamina 250,000 bpd, while Maersk provided three different scenarios for output of 200,000 bpd, 300,000 bpd and 450,000 bpd, with the latter plateauing at this level for at least 40 years, which would increase the recovery rate to 12%.

Seismic surveying around Ab Teymour has also resulted in the discovery of a new reservoir structure which is believed to hold an additional 2bn barrels of OIP.