The National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) has been selected to drill 37 wells at the giant Azadegan oilfield in a $300 million contract signed this week.
The state driller, which has already completed six exploration wells, will start drilling in March, using three rigs.
Eight of the new probes will be for appraisal, with the rest being development wells.
The last well will be completed in 40 months.
This is the second contract award since the partial withdrawal of Japan's Inpex from the project, as the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) tries to make up for lost time and show that it has the capacity to carry out the scheme with Iranian companies.
NIOC managing director Gholamhossain Nozari said at the NIDC contract signing ceremony that Azadegan is viewed as "an exemplary development plan" that would show the worldthat Iran is capable of implementing such schemes.
Last month, Petroiran Development Company (Pedco), the state outfit recently appointed operator at Azadegan, awarded a $95 million contract to Iranian construction giant Jahanpars to carry out civil works, including preparation of well sites.
Preliminary work on these and other contracts, yet to be awarded, has been carried out by Inpex over the past two years.
Japanese company Inpex reduced its 75% stake in Azadegan to 10% in November because it could not meet Iran's schedule for work at Azadegan to start before resolution of Iran's nuclear dispute with the US. Since then, the Japanese outfit has been helping Pedco to get the project moving.
The Japanese company had selected a consortium of Saipem, Marubeni and Iranian outfit Sazeh Consult for the main $700 million engineering, procurement, construction, and management package last year, but a contract was not finalised.
Since November, the principal stakeholder in Azadegan has been Nico International, NIOC's financing unit and previous 25% stakeholder. Nico appointed Pedco as operator.
Nico's stake is now 90%, but it will divest itself of some shares if a foreign partner is found, officials said.
Talks have also been taking place with Total, which had in the past expressed interest in a stake of up to 15%.
According to some sources, talks have also been taking place with Shell, which had helped Inpex in its initial technical preparations.
Officials in Tehran said an unidentified Chinese company has also expressed interest.
© Upstream 2006
