National Iranian Oil Company’s managing director has announced that 20 contracts will be signed by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2012) to develop joint oilfields.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony in Tehran for signing Farzad A oilfield development deal, NIOC director Ahmad Qalebani said that contracts for developing Farzad B, Soroush, Esfandyar, Lavan, Arash and Hengam fields will soon be finalized, the Fars news agency reported.

Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said in August that the Iranian government should consider plans for the development of joint oilfields in the border areas with Iraq, the IRNA news agency reported.

The government should increase the budgets for the development of joint oilfields, Qasemi said at a meeting with the Iranian oil industry contractors.

"The oil industry's infrastructure needs more than 500 trillion rials (about 50 billion U.S. dollars) of investment to achieve Iran's 20-year economic perspective plan goals," Qasemi was quoted as saying.

“By the end of the fifth development plan (2015), the country’s oil production must increase to 5.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and this should happen from the country’s joint fields,” the ISNA news agency quoted Qasemi as saying.

Officials have put Iran’s current output at between 3.6 million and 4 million bpd. Hormoz Qalavand, head of the National Iranian Southern Oil Company, told the Fars news agency recently that Iran’s oil production is 3.92 million bpd.