TEHRAN (PIN) – National Iranian Central Oil Company (NICOC) Managing Director Alireza Zeighami yesterday said “Well No. 23B” of Kangan field with a daily production capacity of 1.8 million cubic meters of gas was put into operation.

The NICOC head added the well had been drilled as a diversion well when a fire occurred during the drilling operations of “Well No. 23” of the gas field.
Zeighami said “Well No. 23B” came on stream through the efforts of Nar and Kangan executive officials.
“Well No. 23B” and “Well No. 23A” were dual-purpose wells as they had been designed in a way to help the curbing operations and to boost production, said the managing director, adding the newly run well now yielded 900 thousand cubic meters of gas a day, meeting some part of the country’s need.
He said the output of “Well No. 23B” would reach 1.8 million cubic meters in December.
Kangan is one of the largest onshore gas fields of Iran, holding 750 billion cubic meters of in-place gas. Up to now, 29 wells have been drilled in the region, yielding 210 billion cubic meters of gas.
Zeighami Monday announced that the development of 18 new oil and gas fields would be put out to international tender in the first phase.
He told PIN that domestic companies would implement 75 percent of the first phase projects and the remaining part would be done by foreign companies, adding if American and European companies refused to take part in the tender, other foreign bidders would be signed.
“At present, NICOC is producing 300 million cubic meters of gas in nine provinces of Iran, 65 percent of the country’s total output,” said the official.
He added the company was currently producing 145 thousand barrels of oil per day, vowing the figure would soar to 165 thousand bpd within the next two months.
“This is not the real production capacity of the company,” said Zeighami, adding its oil output would reach 320 thousand bpd by 2011 and 395 thousand bpd by 2016.
The NICOC head said the average gas production of the company would touch 335 million cubic meters and its gas condensates production would stand at 100 barrels a day in 2011.
He added NICOC’s gas and gas condensates production would be 375 million cubic meters and 110 thousand barrels daily in 2016 respectively.
“To attain the goals, the company needs to invest eight billion dollars,” Zeighami added.
He pointed to the second phase of Parsian 2 Refinery, South Gashoo Refinery, and LNG 1300 project as three underway projects of the company, adding 75 percent of the operations would be carried out by local experts.
“The first phase of Parsian-No Refinery, the development plan of Homa, Varavi, and Shanol gas fields, and the 36- and 6-inch gas condensates transmission pipelines are also ready for inauguration,” added the NICOC chief.
The company’s managing director announced that the development plan of Tangeh Bijar gas field was partly implemented and the field started production with a daily 7 million cubic meter capacity per day.
Zeighami added when Ilam Gas Refinery came on stream in the second phase, the capacity would rise to 10 million cubic meters daily.