Trend News Agency cited Mr Rostam Qasemi oil minister of Iran as saying that development plans of 2 oilfields namely Yadavaran and Azadegan have been started by Chinese companies' USD 20 billion investments aimed to produce 700,000 barrels of oil per day. Over 20 drilling rigs have been commissioned at the two oilfields.

The Azadegan oilfield is located close to the Iraqi border. The field holds around 33.2 billion barrels of in situ oil deposit of which 5.2 billion barrels are recoverable.

Iran and China signed USD 1.76 billion deal in January 2009 for the initial development of the North Azadegan oilfield. The deal was signed between the China National Petroleum Corporation and the National Iranian Oil Company.

The Yadavaran oilfield is estimated to hold around 12 billion barrels of in situ crude oil, some 12.5 trillion cubic feet of associated gases as well as nearly 1.9 billion barrels of condensates.

Iran and the Chinese Sinopec signed a buyback contract in 2007 on the development of the Yadavaran oilfield.

Mr Qasemi said that in August 2011 that the Iranian government should consider plans for the development of joint oilfields in the border areas with Iraq.

He said that the government should increase the budgets for the development of joint oilfields. The oil industry's infrastructure needs more than IRR 500 trillion of investment to achieve objectives of the 20 Year Outlook Plan.

Source - Trend News Agency

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