Norway’s Norsk Hydro sees the potential for production of 100,000 b/d of oil from a find in Iran’s Anaran block, following the testing of the Azar-2 discovery well (MEES, 15 August). Hydro Executive Vice-President Tore Torvund said in the Aftenposten newspaper of 31 August: “We believe this is obviously a commercial find. There may be more than 1bn barrels – at least – in the structure. I would say that totally from this area we will in the long term be able to produce about 100,000 b/d. We have an ambition to bring the field into production in 2010 or a bit later.”
Norsk Hydro is operator and 75% interest holder in the block, along with 25% farm-in partner Lukoil of Russia. Mr Torvund said that the company intended to negotiate with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for a buyback contract to develop the Azar discovery. Iran’s exploration license terms would enable Hydro and Lukoil to take at least 30% of the development, if NIOC declares the field commercial and agrees terms with Hydro. In the meantime, the company plans to drill two other prospective structures on the block – Shangule and Musian – identified from seismic survey data.
