TEHRAN, Jan. 30 (Shana) � Iran says it expects to withdraw 300,000 barrels of crude oil from west Karoun oilfields by March 2017, a senior Iranian oil official said.

Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC) Abdolreza Haji-Hosseinnejad told a press conference on Saturday that production of oil from North Yaran oil field will reach 30,000b/d by the end of the next Iranian calendar year to March 2017 while South Azadegan will reach a production capacity of 60,000 b/d by the same date.

He said PEDEC will hopefully keep its promise of recovering 550,000 b/d of crude oil from west Karoun oilfields during 2017, adding that production of 0.7 mb/d of oil from the fields by then depends on production operations at North Azadegan and Yadavaran oilfields.

The Chinese developer of South Azadegan was expelled from the fields in 2014 for foot-dragging, he said.

"I am proud to announce that the field's development project has reached 20% completion by support from Iranian Ministry of Petroleum and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)," Haji-Hosseinnejad said.

He said 13 oil rigs are operating at the field which have so far dug 200,000 meters of wells.

"None of the rigs are foreign-made and are all constructed by Iranian developers," he added.

He said South Azadegan is being developed under a $2.1b contract and is expected to reach a production capacity of 60,000 b/d during 2016 or early 2017.

South Azadegan is the biggest oil field in the west Karoun region.

By SHANA