With Kuwait and Saudi Arabia completing their studies for developing the “Al-Durra” (Arash) field, Abdolreza Abed, the commander of the IRGC Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, has issued a warning and requested that this institution be involved in the field’s development.
Abed also claimed that Khatam al-Anbiya has the capability to develop the Esfandiar and Farzad fields, which are shared with Saudi Arabia.
Iran has 28 shared oil and gas fields with neighboring countries, in almost all of which it has fallen behind its neighbors.
The main reasons for Iran’s lag in oil and gas extraction from shared fields are a lack of investment and modern technology.
Iran’s most important shared fields are with Iraq, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. These countries, with the help of international, particularly Western, companies, have significantly increased their oil and gas production and continue to expand extraction from these fields.
In contrast, Iran’s Oil Ministry, lacking foreign investments and a capable private sector, relies on 14.5% of oil revenues for investments in the fossil energy sector.
According to the Parliamentary Research Center, annual investment in the country’s oil and gas fields has dropped from around $18 billion in the 2000s to approximately $7 billion in the early 2010s, and since 2019, this figure has plummeted to $3 billion.
Shared oil fields account for 20% of Iran’s recoverable oil reserves and 30% of its gas reserves.
With 33 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves and 157 billion barrels of oil reserves, Iran ranks second and fourth globally in hydrocarbon reserves.
The Foroozan Field and Falling Behind Saudi Arabia
Iran shares several oil and gas fields with Saudi Arabia but has only managed to produce 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the Foroozan field, while Saudi Arabia produces 14 times more oil from the same field. Saudi Arabia has signed a $12 billion contract with international companies over the past five years, aiming to increase oil production by 60% to 800,000 bpd and boost gas production by 70 million cubic meters per day.
The Farzad Field and Failure in Development
Iran has another large shared gas field with Saudi Arabia near Foroozan, called the “Farzad” field. Negotiations between Iran and the Indian companies that discovered the field have dragged on for over a decade without success, and Iran itself lacks the $5 billion investment needed to develop this field, which has a highly complex structure.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia immediately began developing the field after its discovery by the Indians in 2008 and started gas production in 2013. Saudi Arabia is now producing over 30 million cubic meters of gas per day from the field, and Aramco’s plan to increase production to 75 million cubic meters per day is progressing rapidly.
The Esfandiar and Arash Fields
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait also share the Esfandiar (Lulu) and Arash (Al-Durra) oil and gas fields with Iran. They have developed the Esfandiar field for years, and with a $10 billion investment, plan to begin producing 30 million cubic meters of gas and 84,000 barrels of condensate daily from Arash by the end of the year, within five years.
These two countries have rejected Iran’s claim to a share in the Arash field, asserting exclusive rights to its extraction, a position Iran does not accept.
Shared Fields with Iraq
Iran’s largest shared oil fields are with Iraq, a neighbor that extracts four times as much oil as Iran from these fields. Iraq has signed massive contracts with Chinese, Russian, and Western companies to increase extraction from these fields.
The Salman and Nosrat Fields
Iran shares two oil fields with the United Arab Emirates, named “Salman” and “Nosrat.”
The UAE produces 65,000 bpd from the Nosrat field, which is 20 times more than Iran’s production from the same field.
South Pars and Qatar
Iran’s largest gas field, South Pars, is shared with Qatar. Qatar started extracting gas ten years before Iran and has produced twice as much gas.
While Iran’s share of the South Pars gas field entered its second half of life last year, causing a reduction of 10 billion cubic meters in its production annually, Qatar has signed $29 billion worth of contracts with international companies over the past two years. These agreements aim to increase gas production by 40% by 2027 and 60% by 2030.
Currently, both Iran and Qatar produce approximately 180 billion cubic meters of gas annually from South Pars.
To maintain production from this massive gas field, Iran needs to install 20,000-ton platforms (15 times the size of current platforms) and large compressors, technology that is exclusively held by Western companies.
Qatar also extracts 450,000 barrels of crude oil daily from the oil layer of the South Pars gas field, which is 13 times more than Iran’s production from the same layer.
