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Iran's annual offshore oil output up 21 pc

TEHRAN: Iran said on Sunday its offshore oil production had reached 190 million barrels in the year to March, a 21 percent increase over the previous year.

Abolqassem Hassani, director of Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC), told state television that his company was aiming at an annual production capacity of 1.1 million by 2005.

He said IOOC was moving fast to develop oil fields which Iran shares with other countries across the Gulf, including Salman, partly owned by Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

Salman's output capacity reached 90,000 barrels a day in the Iranian year which ended on March 19, from 80,000 barrels a day the year before, the official said.

He said total crude production in Salman and two other shared fields - Nosrat and Foroozan - had stood at 47 million barrels last year.

Exploration is underway in other offshore fields, including Esfandyar, the official said.

Hassani said his company had signed two major deals last year, including one with Royal Dutch/Shell for $1.45 billion.

Iran signed an $800 million deal with Shell last November to develop two Gulf offshore oil fields - Soroush and Nowruz - on a buy-back basis.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said later that Shell would earn a total of $1.455 billion from the deal within a ten-year period after the two fields start pumping oil.

Hassani said the other deal had been signed with an Iranian company for $185 million.

He said about 4.5 billion barrels of crude had so far been extracted from an estimated total offshore reserves of 20 billion barrels.

Iran said last month it was preparing to sign deals to develop six offshore gas fields it shares with other countries across the Gulf.

Deputy Oil Minister Mehdi Hosseini said the projects included the next five stages of Iran's massive South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar, as well as the Salman, Farzam, Esfandiar and Foroozan fields.-Reuters