SHANA -- The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a contract with Persia Oil and Gas Industry Development Company (POGIDC) for the development of Yaran joint oilfield.

The document was signed on Saturday morning in a ceremony held in Tehran in the presence of Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh, the CEO of the Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), Touraj Dehghan, representing NIOC, and Jafar Hejazi, CEO of PGOIDC.

The contract is aimed at development and integrated operation of the Yaran joint field pursuant to a heads of agreement (HoA) signed earlier for studying the field.

The agreement, which is signed with the aim of maximizing the potential of Iranian exploration and production companies, aims to achieve additional cumulative production of about 39.5 million barrels over 10 years in the field, with direct capital expenditures of $227 million and operating costs of an estimated $236 million. The developer of the project is required to provide all the necessary financial resources for implementation of the project.

The project entails drilling 6 new wells (three wells in North Yaran and three others in South Yaran), drilling a descriptive well, drilling a well for water injection, workover operations in five wells, equipping 27 production wells in Sarvak Layer with ESP pump, constructing and upgrading ground facilities, conducting laboratory studies, and designing the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method.

Back in October 2016, an agreement was signed between the National Iranian Oil Company and Persia Oil and Gas Industry Company to study the field.

Development of Yaran joint field, which is located 130 km southwest of Ahvaz and west of South Azadegan field and is shared with Majnoon Field in Iraq, has been pursued in two sections: south and north.

North Yaran Development Project is the first 100% Iranian buyback project that was implemented by Persia Oil and Gas Industry Company with the aim of producing 30,000 barrels per day of crude oil. It was officially put into operation in November 2016 and about a year later, oil was extracted from the southern part of Yaran field by PEDEC.

Implementation of this development project, which has been carried out by relying on domestic capacity and capabilities, enhances the country's crude oil production capacity, and maximizes the use of domestic potentialities, ensures business boom in the southwestern province of Khuzestan and generates jobs for local manpower.