Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

While Russian oil giant Lukoil is eyeing to return Iranian Azar oilfield after the lifting of sanctions, the Islamic Republic said it needs the company in the next phases of the oilfield’s development.

Roknoddin Javadi, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company Iran has said Russian giant oil company Lukoil is not needed to participate in the first phase of Azar oilfield development plan.

Lukoil and Norway’s Statoil began work on the Anaran oilfield in 2003, but were forced to withdraw in 2011 when economic sanctions were imposed on Iran.

LUKOIL, in consortium with Statoil held in Iran exploration work on the Anaran block. Following the results of the work Azar and Shangule oilfields were discovered. Companies discussed with the Iranian authorities the possibility of mining, but the contract has not been concluded. In 2007, LUKOIL left the project Anaran due to the introduction of international sanctions against Iran. In 2013, Iran reimbursed LUKOIL $ 63 million cost of Anaran project.

“There is no need for foreign companies, including Lukoil, to participate in the first phase of Azar oilfield development plan. They can participate in next development phases,” Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Javadi as saying.

Lukoil and NIOC have held negotiations about Lukoil’s resumption of a project to develop Iran’s Azar oilfield.

Javadi said the first phase of the development plan is underway by Iranian contractors with considerable progress.

Iran shares Azar with Iraq which calls it Badra. Russia’s Gazprom Neft operates the field and currently produces around 28,000 barrels per day from the field.

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and Lukoil Managing Director Vagit Alekperov met in Tehran in September.

Lukoil reopened its office in Tehran in April, with Alekperov saying his energy group would return to Iran as soon as the sanctions were lifted.

Iranian officials said the Anaran project would be Lukoil's primary focus but the company was studying geological data from other projects as well.

Earlier, the other oil giants, including Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum (BP), Malaysia's Petronas, Spain's Repsol, France's Total and Italy's Eni have expressed interest in returning to the Iranian market following removal of anti-Iran sanctions.

Iran sits atop one of the world's largest natural gas reserves of over 33 trillion cubic meters and, in the near future, the country is set to increase its gas processing and transfer capacity to one billion cubic meters per day from the current level of 600 million cubic meters per day.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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