Crude output to surge by 135,000 bpd via rapid-deployment processing units: Deputy minister
Iran is expected to raise its crude output by 135,000 barrels per day (bpd) through the installation rapid-deployment modular projects — known as “skid-mounted” units under newly signed service contracts, CEO of the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) Hamid Bovard said on Wednesday.
“Given the signing of two contracts — one for crude oil processing services at oil fields and another for supplying onshore drilling rigs — we have scheduled the installation of 11 skid-mounted units,” Bovard said, according to IRNA.
“Their deployment time is very short, between six and twelve months, and their implementation will add 135,000 barrels per day to the country’s crude output,” he added.
Bovard, who also serves as deputy oil minister, appreciated the private sector’s investment in crude oil production and said the project would employ 7,000 people directly and indirectly.
He added that numerous small-scale private investors had enabled the launch of this large-scale initiative.
A senior NIOC official separately said on Sunday that 12% of the country’s crude oil processing capacity had been allocated to the private sector via skid-mounted units under a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Under a second contract, signed between the private sector and the NIOC with a five-year term, 20 new drilling rigs will join Iran’s onshore rig fleet, further boosting production capacity, Bovard said.
“Our goal is to deploy these rigs in four to six months,” he said. “Under this contract, the rigs are expected to drill 270 new wells.”
Iran does not release detailed crude output and export figures, citing US sanctions that it says require confidentiality. Data from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the International Energy Agency (IEA) show Iran has significantly increased oil production in recent years despite continued sanctions.
Iran pumps around 3.5 million bpd, according to a rare comment by Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad in August about production rise in the first year of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government in office.