NIOC signs deal with Repsol-YPF

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a multi-million-dollar agreement with the giant Spanish oil firm, Repsol-YPF, for exploration operations in Forouz and Iran-Mehr oil blocks in southern Iran. Under the agreement, the $ 27 mm project is to be implemented in 30 months and could be extended for another one year.
The one-year extension has been stipulated by the original version of the agreement to increase the financial obligations of the Spanish contractor to $ 39.2 mm. Iran-Mehr oil block is located to the south of Bushehr Port and east of Deir Port while Forouz block is situated to the south of Kish Island. Both blocks are offshore.

Mahmoud Mohaddes, the NIOC director for exploration affairs, said that domestic and international contractors have conducted two-dimension seismological studies on 112,000 sq km of oil blocks in Iran’s Persian Gulf waters and that exploration deals have been signed in four blocks.
Another four blocks have been identified in the southern region, which he said need to be explored. The official hoped that exploration activities in the Persian Gulf blocks would lead to discovery of huge oil and gas reserves. He said one well will be drilled in every block, putting the total area covered by Iran-Mehr and Forouz blocks at 28,000 sq km.

Repsol-YPF is Spain’s largest oil company. A fully integrated oil and gas company which has proved reserves of 5.3 bn barrels of oil equivalent, mostly in Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa. It has five refineries in Spain (as well as stakes in five Latin American refineries) and produces chemicals, plastics and polymers.
It sells gas under the brands Campsa, Petronor and Repsol at more than 3,650 service stations in Spain and has 2,970 stations in Argentina and elsewhere.