India eager to retrun to Iran offshore hydrocarbon block

India’s Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas has announced that Indian energy firms are willing to return to the development project of an offshore hydrocarbon block in southern Iran.

According to a report published by India’s English-language newspaper The Hindu on Wednesday, Indian companies are eager to take up work in Farsi block, which is situated in Persian Gulf waters and comprises the Binaloud oil field as well as the Farzad B gas field.

The report further added that New Delhi, however, seeks more competitive and attractive contract terms from Iran, noting that India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Videsh Limited is keen to develop the Farzad B gas field.

The Farzad B gas field has in-place reserves of up to 21.68 trillion cubic feet (tcf), 12.8 tcf of which may be recoverable.

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a five-billion-dollar deal with an Indian consortium led by ONGC in 2002 for the development of the Farsi block.

In March 2013, however, Iran awarded the development of the offshore hydrocarbon block to a domestic company after the Indian state-run consortium dragged its feet on operating the project.

India’s ONGC claimed that oil recovery from Binaloud would be uneconomical, but experts at the Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) found in their studies that production of heavy crude oil from the field would be possible in the near future.

The Farsi block sits atop 508 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, 3.5 billion barrels of heavy crude and 212 million barrels of gas condensates. In the first phase of its development, the block will produce 1.1 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day of natural gas after seven offshore wells are sunk.