National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) has pushed back the launch date for a new heavy crude grade to the end of this year, a source at the state-run firm told International Oil Daily (IOD).
The new grade, known as West Karoon, was due to debut by mid-2016 but the launch has been delayed to allow more time for work on a marketing strategy and tests by refiners, as well as a ramp-up in output at the fields that will produce the stream.
“We still don’t export West Karoon crude separately, but hopefully from year-end,” the source said.
West Karoon block includes North and South Azadegan, Yadavaran and North and South Yaran fields with 64 billion barrels of reserves, which currently share about 6 percent in the country’s total crude oil production. All of the mentioned fields are joint ones with Iraq.
The grade is expected to be offered to Indian and European refiners with facilities to process heavy crudes, and it will compete with Iraq’s Basrah Heavy.
“It is close to Basrah Heavy and in India there has been much interest,” the NIOC source said.
Earlier Iranian official told Trend on condition of anonymity that the output of the mentioned five projects would reach 700,000 barrels per day by 2018.
Currently Iran produces 3.65 million barrels per day (mb/d), about 0.85 mb/d more than during the sanctions era and still about 0.2 mb/d less than during the pre-sanctions level.
“Currently, the Yadavaran and North Azadegan produces 175,000 b/d in the first phase and we are preparing to develop the second phase with Chinese Sinopec and CNPC’s cooperation respectively,” said the official.
