The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was to ink the development of two more oilfields with a local holding company

“The contract for the development of Jofeir and Sepehr oilfields will be signed between NIOC and the Pasargad Energy Development Company (PEDC)” in the presence of Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh and NIOC Managing Director Ali Kardor, it said.

PECD is owned by the Pasargad Financial Group, which includes a number of businesses such as Pasargad Bank.

The Jofeir oilfield in the southwestern province of Khuzestan on the Iraq border is estimated to hold 2.1 billion barrels of in-place reserves.

Sepehr is part of the West Karoun block which includes several large oilfields straddling the Iran-Iraq border, namely Azadegan, Yaran, Yadavaran and Darkhoein.

The block holds an estimated 67 billion barrels of oil in place, including 2 billion barrels at the Sepehr oilfield.

Production from the West Karoun oilfields nearly doubled in the past year, where 305,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil was produced, according to Zangeneh.

/SR