National Iranian Offshore Oil Company (NIOOC) plans to increase production at the Forouzan Oilfield by 10 percent within the next eight months. Managing director of the NIOOC Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh told ISNA on Friday that some 100 kilometers of seabed pipeline have been laid, and related jackets will be installed by the end of the second quarter of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 20). He added that the output at the joint oilfield with Saudi Arabia will increase by 10 percent once gas injection is employed as a secondary production method. The Iranian oil official noted that the development project of the Forouzan Oilfield will become fully operational by the end of the first quarter of 2014. A report published by Mehr News Agency on April 29 said the first jacket related to the development of the Forouzan Oilfield has been sent to the Persian Gulf. The huge structure, made by a special jacket manufacturing yard in Iran's southwestern port city of Khorramshahr, weighs about 4,000 tons and is carried by a special vessel. If climatic conditions are good, it will be installed by late May, the report added. The main goal of the Forouzan Oilfield development project is to extract more than 300 million barrels of crude oil in the next 25 years. The field will also yield about 250 million cubic feet per day of natural gas which will be transferred to the Kharg Island via an undersea pipeline. The Forouzan Oilfield, in the Persian Gulf, is shared with Saudi Arabia. The field experienced its peak production in late 1978 when it produced 180,000 barrels per day of crude oil. The development of the Forouzan Oilfield is a priority project for Iran's Oil Ministry and the field is expected to yield 5,000-10,000 barrels per day of crude oil by the middle of the next Iranian calendar year (starting March 20, 2013). The Forouzan Oilfield is located 100 kilometers (62 miles) southwest of the Kharg Island. It was discovered in 1966 with estimated in-place reserves of 2.309 billion barrels of crude. The field is known as Marjan in Saudi Arabia.
